Archive for Strategic planning
My Top Twelve HIGH ROI To Do’s For Your Business in 2010, by Sheri McConnell
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Sheri McConnell is a successful entrepreneur I admire greatly. Here I share with you her latest article:
Create a Timeless and Focused Marketing Plan for Your Business
As you probably have heard by now—you aren’t in the business of (fill in the blank here). You are in the business of marketing. Your marketing must be automated and systemized. Period.
Create Passive, Income Generating Information Products
Create your own advances and get paid to create information products. Many, many target markets are considered “information hungry”.
Build Your Most Important Asset… Your List
Success on the Internet is about providing high-quality information, solving problems AND the list.
Use Social Networking Sites Such As Facebook, Linked In, My Space, and Twitter
Used strategically, social networks extend your brand and funnel thousands of new leads into your business funnel each and every quarter.
Create A Very Profitable Internet Launch for Your Information Product or Book
Set up correctly, these launches generate thousands and tens of thousands dollars of income, new leads for you, and all your partners.
Create Your Own Certification Program
Certification programs aren’t just for large companies. Solo online entrepreneurs can also benefit from building and creating a certification program within their company.
Build Your Own Virtual Team
Learn how to find, build, and manage a virtual team. The key to “leverage” is the team. We all have weaknesses. Don’t make the most common entrepreneurial mistake: thinking you can do it all.
Approach, Create, and Solidify Long-Lasting Joint Ventures
All successful businesses are built on thriving relationships–on and off the Internet. And with all relationships, you should focus on who and how you attract partners.
Know Which Publishing Options Are Right for YOU
Learn what your publishing options are and make a choice based on the path that is right for you based on your personality, strengths, and weaknesses.
Double Your List Size With A Virtual Event
One of the best strategies for growing the list is an online virtual event with multiple partners or joint ventures. Give customers free access and structure the event correctly and it is a huge list builder.
Develop Your Intuition
Most entrepreneurs spend so much time focusing on all the “outside” stuff that they forget to get help on learning how to “think” like a CEO. Your success and ability to run a profitable company depends on your leaning how to develop your CEO intuition.
Use Visual Tools To Set Goals and Stay On Track
All successful entrepreneurs incorporate visual components into their strategy planning. They spend as much time planning as they do in the marketing, operations, finance parts of their business.
Sheri McConnell is the CEO of Sheri McConnell Companies, Inc. and the president and founder of two national organizations, the National Association of Women Writers-NAWW and the International Association of Web Entrepreneurs-AWE. Under the same corporate umbrella she is also the owner of two high-level product and consulting companies: Create Your Group and My Millionaire Friends. You can visit Sheri, access her free article archive, and find out more about all four of her companies at www.sherimcconnell.com. Sheri lives in San Antonio, Texas with her husband, their four children, a weenie dog, and two cats.
Advantages of Online Reputation Management for Companies
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Constantly maintaining online reputations is one of the reasons why Online Reputation Management exists. In real sense, Online Reputation Management (ORM) was created to help business owners and professionals deal with bad press.
Even a large company or a small one could not get rid of the receiving end of negative publicity. Remember that the internet never fails to forget. Everything we do online leaves a digital mark that will never go away. This gives a reason why Online Reputation Management serves as a necessity in the field of business today.
See the advantages of Online Reputation Management for companies:
- It improves customer satisfaction by gaining insights from consumers about what is good and bad about their product or services. This increases perceptions of brand/ product by creating opportunities to listen to and engage consumers.
- It helps on gaining insights about their competitors and their customers’ perceptions about their products and services. This helps in the understanding of the relationship between user generated content and traditional forms of online media, e.g. news, print, etc.
- It maintains shareholder value by mitigating risk by having ears close to the ground where opinions about a business are being formed and propagated.
- They’re likely to be engaged in more effective Public Relations by understanding who the real influencers are.
- ORM takes a role in providing early warning systems for reactive and defensive PR.
- This may also help in reducing marketing dollars by learning how to reach out to customers more cheaply.
- May reduce internal costs by employing services which save time and effort, as well as money.
- ORM helps to identify gaps for products and services which can be developed for profitable niche markets.
- It gains insight into online networks and keywords and key phrases found in user-generated content, which can help to bolster natural search results about the person, product, or business.
Tips for maximizing the efficiency of your online reputation management endeavors:
1. Set up your social networking sites with your own name.
In other words, you need to create an interlinked “web” of these powerful social networks – that all point to you. This is profoundly important because it establishes your presence in the major search engines like Google. Using aliases, pen names or otherwise will not help establish your branding effectiveness.
2. Try to get the same username set up for all of your social media engagement profiles.
3. When you add any type of content to your social networking sites, keep your online reputation management plan in mind. You should add relevant materials.
Seeing the advantages of Online Management training, I can say that it’s a mistake for companies to launch an online reputation management campaign after the damage of bad press has already spread which is a mistake. Everyone must take a preventative approach to protect business.
This great post was contributed by Eleanor Marks Prior, Wordpress Whiz and Social Media maven.
5 childhood hobbies that could help you today, by Ali Brown
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Ali’s newest blog post talks about our childhood hobbies, what we were good at as a kid and how that could actually help us today in our business life. I have to agree. I used to be the child that was sitting till late through the night writing stories and drawing pictures. I had a collection of about 200 horse postcards and used to sit down to plan out my equestrian center where people could learn to ride. I had maps and drawings of the whole equestrian complex with riding arena areas, wash bays, stables, guest accommodation units and paddocks. Every day I would add or change something about the big masterplan.
When I was about 10, I also sent a lot of inquiry letters to hotels and farms catering to horse riders to receive in return a brochure of their business. I would wait every day at the mail box to see if more brochures had arrived. It made my day when one arrived and I would sit there for hours analyzing the brochure, seeing what they offered that I didn’t (in my fictional equestrian center) and what ideas I could incorporate in my business planning process. I was totally absorbed in this.
I also wrote ‘books’ on horses and my mum used to hide them somewhere to safe keep, unfortunately often never finding them again as they were so well hidden. As my parents still live in the same house I guess that one day we may find them. 
Ali says:
“When you reflect on your childhood hobbies, you probably feel a bit of nostalgia for those carefree days spent putting on plays, kicking around a soccer ball, or creating fridge-worthy
artwork. But have you ever considered how those hobbies now impact your business success? Even if you’re no longer involved in those hobbies, the skills you learned on the softball field or the stage helped mold you into the professional you are today. And if you’re still figuring out what direction to take your business, your hobbies also offer insights into the types of activities that you’re truly passionate about. Read on to see what your hobby says about you.
1. Sports team.
Whether you were involved in swimming, soccer, softball, or some other sport, being part of a team taught you how to work with different personalities towards a common goal. You also learned how to challenge yourself and developed a healthy sense of competition, which translates nicely from the basketball court to the boardroom. Your ideal business model probably involves collaborating with others. If you’ve lost touch with this skill, go back in your mind to your old school days.
2. Arts and crafts.
If you were one of those artistic types who spent hours painting, sculpting, or drawing, then you probably still have a strong aesthetic sense. This can help you create an interesting and eye-catching visual identity for your business, whether through a website, display window, brochure, PowerPoint presentation, or other means. Because you had creative control over your art as a kid, you may be the type of businesswoman who prefers to work independently. And if you’re still figuring out where to take your business, consider creative fields like interior design, visual merchandising, or web design.
3. Debate team or drama club.
Debate teaches kids how to craft a compelling argument and deliver it with confidence, while drama lowers inhibitions and encourages teamwork and creativity. Women who were involved in debate team or drama club tend to be confident in front of a crowd, which can help them network and market themselves effectively. If that’s you, then consider adding speaking engagements or instructional videos to your business model, as these can generate revenue and create buzz.
4. Music group.
Practice makes perfect, and few people know this better than former choir, band, or orchestra members. Participating in a music group teaches teamwork and self-discipline. Several studies show that studying music increases cognitive function, particularly in math and spatial learning. Playing music has also been found to reduce stress and boost memory in adults, which offers plenty of incentive to pick it up again. It may be time to rediscover your love of music.
5. Collecting.
Most kids have some kind collection, whether it includes Barbie dolls, stickers, stamps, coins, or some other item. If you were a collector as a kid, then you probably developed a strong sense of organization, which benefits all types of businesses. If you’re still deciding on a business model, then you might consider something that allows you to buy or sell goods to help recapture the joy of collecting you felt as a kid.
Rediscovering the activities you enjoyed as a child can help you find joy in your adult life – and succeed in your business, too.”
Self-made multimillionaire entrepreneur and Inc. 500 CEO Ali Brown is devoted to creating financial freedom for women globally through the power of entrepreneurship. To learn how to create wealth and live an extraordinary life now, register for her free weekly articles at www.AliBrown.com Ali Brown’s blog
Call with the Shift-it coach
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Today, I was listening to a call with the shift-it coach, Christina Merkley. The call was organised by Tina Forsyth and part of the training for the International Association of Online Business Managers (www.obmconnect.com).
Tina, trainer of the Certified Online Business Management program and co-founder of the International Association of Online Business Managers, asked Christina to help the newest graduates of the OBM training with their strategic planning process. Where to from here?
Christina is a strategic planning and graphic coach and helps business owners identify their strategic direction by taking stock of their lives and drawing up their future goals and vision. She uses interactive maps which help the business owner get creative. These maps can easily remove blocks that often come into play when you are just thinking about your goals and vision in your head without committing to writing it down. We as entrepreneurs often get overwhelmed and stuck while planning for our future direction and drawing/writing it down helps us to create a new vision.
At first it can be a bit difficult to identify positive goals rather than taking about “what I don’t want in life”.
Christina guided us into turning the negative thoughts into positive goals. Changing the wording of our goals into a positive statement. Eg. “I don’t want difficult clients” gets reframed into “I work with friendly, enthusiastic clients” instead.
The positive statement is so much more powerful and will help attracting the positive things into your life and business.
Christina has a fantastic freebie report on her website: http:www.shift-it-coach.com. It’s called “Focus on me” and it includes several maps to fill out yourself with excellent instructions to guide you through the process. A great tool, which is an ideal follow on to my 25 Questions about your Dream Business.
In May I actually downloaded Christina’s report and worked through the maps. I kept the maps for reference and today I looked at them again. What a difference! One of the maps showed “my reality” in May and one showed my desired outcome back then. Amazingly, many of the things and goals I mentioned have come true!
I will definitely work on a new map and see how much more it will transform my business and my personal life.
Go and check out Christina’s website: http:www.shift-it-coach.com
Multiple Prospects? Multiple Solutions! – by Tom Buford
Posted by: | CommentsOk, I hope I’m not too boring at the moment as I’m posting information from some of the people I admire and who work hard to provide great information for solopreneurs. I’m currently so busy with creating some ebooks on business start ups and other virtual assistant topics. So as there are only 24 hours in a day, I find it hard to produce my own blog posts, BUT I am committed to only post fantastic posts from really valuable sources on here.
One of the people who are very helpful for coaches, speakers and solopreneurs is Tom Buford. If you don’t know him, keep reading and take note because he really knows his stuff. His business is called “Charge what you deserve” and I recommend having a look at what his philosophy about fees is.
Underneath is Tom’s blog post from March, 13, check it out, chances are you like the ideas:
“When you are offering only one service or product, you’re putting a tremendous amount of undue pressure on yourself.
Every time you face a prospect you know in the back of your mind that it’s all or nothing.
Why not alleviate this pressure and at the same time give your market a selection of choices.
Here are a few ideas:
- Newsletters, articles and free reports
- Information products
- Group programs
- Split-fees
You can cover all your bases from “home-run” services to free information such as newsletters and articles.
Let’s go through these one at a time.
Most people need to get to know, like and trust you before they invest hard-earned money into your services. This might take 5 minutes or 5 months. Everybody is different. That’s one of the main reasons to offer multiple solutions for your clients’ problems. Not any one is going to be best suited for all of them.
Newsletters, articles and free reports:
These are, without a doubt, three of the best ways to get people interested in what you have to offer. If you give them valuable, practical information at no risk whatsoever then they will be more inclined to trust you when you offer more expensive solutions.
What about those prospects who truly cannot afford your fees? Newsletters, articles and free reports are a godsend for these people. They need information that they can trust, but they aren’t capable of shelling out the money just yet.
For others it absolutely frightening to hand money over to somebody that they don’t know. Give them the opportunity to know, like and trust you and their guard will come down. Just be sure to always respect and honor this trust. Consider it sacred and you can have long lasting relationships with your clients.
Remember, it’s MUCH more expensive to acquire new clients than it is to retain existing ones.
Information products
Information products come in all shapes, sizes and prices. They can be free, 15 page downloads all the way to multiple CD and 
book packages ranging from a few dollars to $2500 and more.
I watched one ezine guru go from $450 to $1500 for the exact same info product in ONE year. And she gets it. Obviously people have found her information to be worth thousands of dollars.
One of the easiest ways to create an information product is to record a teleseminar or a series of teleseminars, have the audio transcribed, then package the audio and book. You can keep it to a simple PDF text and MP3 audio download or create a physical product. Both can be very useful for your clients and very profitable for you.
Group programs
Teleseminars and workshops are great ways to leverage your time and offer your services at a lower fee. You can do this and make excellent income because you are working with several people at a time.
If you are providing superb value for your clients then many of them will want to get closer to you and hire you one-on-one.
Group programs are also a great option for current clients who are struggling with the financial commitment of more expensive private services.
Split-fees
Many coaches offer a set number of sessions per month for a set number of minutes each session at a set price.
For instance, they might offer four, 45-minute sessions per month for $500. This becomes very restrictive in terms of what you’re offering your clients. Not everybody is going to need the same number of sessions each month for the same amount of time.
Take the same example and make a slight adjustment.
Package A Package B
Sessions per month: Two Four
Length of sessions: 45 minutes 45 minutes
Investment: $400 $700
Imagine your prospects actually having choices? You don’t want to confuse them with too choices, but you don’t want to limit them to an “all or nothing” either.
This is also great insurance for not having to discuss your fees too early in a sales conversation.
You can be honest and say that you have multiple solutions for their needs and you would like to get more information first. More on that when I discuss tips for communicating fees with confidence.
Profit Step
Write down split-fee packages that you can offer. Include 2-3 different packages.
Challenge: If one of the packages is offering the same amount of time that you currently offer your clients, I want to challenge you to raise the price of that package at least 50% above what you currently charge.
Cheers and Success
Tom”
Note: This was an excerpt from the Charge What You Deserve Coach in a Book. To discover more practical techniques for how to charge what you deserve and get it go to:
