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How Much Money Do You Really Need?

Because I’m sensing this strong undercurrent of desperation in many business owners about making 6 or 7 figures, I wanted to invite you to take a different tact:

Ask yourself, what’s the least income you can make right now and still live a happy life?

Not ‘I want to make a million dollars by the time I’m 40’ and you’re 39 now and the most you’ve ever made is $50k. Not ‘I want to make 6 figures by the end of this year’ and your current monthly revenue is $2k.

So, what’s the least you can make that will take you to that very next step in your vision – not the BIG vision – but just the next bump up?

What’s the least amount of money you can bring in that will give your current lifestyle the boost that will make you smile, that will make you feel and know you’re moving forward, and that will continue to motivate you onward?

You see, I’ve been asking myself the same question lately. And the reason is because I’ve been starting to feel really stressed in my business and frankly I’m not having as much fun as I used to in it either.

And because of a few other things that are attributing to this feeling of heaviness that are outside my business, I’ve been feeling a need to shift things. Just small shifts for now, while allowing the bigger shifts to more fully form without pushing them into fruition until later.

So here’s my answer to this question and how you can figure it out for your own business too:

Step 1: Get cash clear

Get crystal clear on how much money you really need to live the lifestyle that you’re happy with, not the one you’re striving for (I guarantee when you give up this grip, money will flow more abundantly to you).

This may mean having a conversation with a spouse or partner. Do it. Especially if you are in a financial partnership with someone else, you’re likely not the only one feeling the push and the pressure for more. Do yourselves both a favor and figure out what’s the minimum level for you. You may be able to give up or put aside one or more of your current income streams so you can have more of the time freedom you crave, knowing you still have enough to enjoy your life.

Step 2: Be sure all your eggs aren’t in one basket

If you’re relying on high-end pricing and programs to carry your business, you may be setting yourself up for a financial fall. Your clients and customers are being more and more discriminating about where they’re spending their money – and that’s not going to change anytime in the near future, not while our economic outlook is still bleak.

Be sure to have different ways in which you can serve your market, not just one-on-one. Offer lower priced programs and products to help more people as well as to diversify your cash flow.

Step 3: Build your business around your life

This is a mindset shift for many people. But if you’re in business for yourself, isn’t it so you can design the life you want to live? Not so you can work more, but so you can work less, and still enjoy a great life with the income to support it?

In order to do that, you have to schedule your life first, then your business-building activities around that. This is how I’ve been able to take off almost 3 months every summer for the last 15 or so years. My business doesn’t suffer; in fact, it grows because of my commitment to this principle.

Figure out how to make the money you want for the next level of your business (again, not the BIG vision, just the next bump up) in the time that is left after you’ve planned the life you want to live first. Then ask for the support or hire the team you need to help you make this happen.

When you put your life first, the time towards what makes you happy, the focus on just the next bump while you tend to LIVING, all the ‘more’ you want (which we all want, by the way – we are all here to grow and to be, do, and have more) will come. This I know for sure.

Your Online Business Sales Cycle

Online Business Sales Cycle

 

Creating a profitable business online is a process, just like creating any other business.

And regardless of what it is that you’re offering, your cash flow is based on your sales.

Once you know and implement the online business sales cycle (which anyone can follow), you’ll be able to create consistent cash flow for your business, too.

Here are the six basic steps in the online business sales cycle:

 

Step 1. Choose Your Prospects

“Prospects” is business-speak for potential clients and/or customers. So, who is the person who is ideally suited for your product, program or service? Who’s your ideal client or customer? Who makes up your target market? Is it parents, health professionals, copywriters, dancers, artists, entrepreneurs, boat owners?

It’s critical for the success of any business to choose a group of people to work with, even if that group is very broad at first. As you become more and more aware of what kind of client or customer shows up for you, you’ll be able to more narrowly target that portion of the market, which will make your marketing a lot easier and bring you cash flow a lot quicker.

 

Step 2. Invite Them into Your Funnel

Once you know who your prospects are, you’ll want to invite them into your sales flow – in the business model I teach, I call it your Funnel – by giving them a free taste of what it is that you offer in exchange for their email address.

There are many ways to do this – creating PDFs like checklists and templates, offering free introductory webinars, virtual or live speaking, Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, publishing blog posts, participating in groups made up of your target market, etc.

 

Step 3. Keep in Touch

Once your prospects are in your sales flow, you’ll want to keep in touch with them on a consistent basis.

Common marketing knowledge tells us that it takes a minimum of 5-12 times for your prospects to see your message before it even registers.

That’s why so many direct marketers will send you postcard after postcard with the same offer. They know that the only way to get you to take action on their offer is to expose you to the same or similar message over and over until you’re ready to hear it.

A very effective way to keep in touch with your prospects then is via regular email communications. Because following up with your prospects is vital to making sales from them, sending a weekly or even daily email does this work for you.

The bonus is that you can follow up with all of your prospects at once, instead of one by one, which leverages your time – something you should always be striving for.

 

Step 4. Make Offers

And because we want to leverage our time, if we’re putting in the work to connect and engage with our email subscribers regularly, then we want to make sure that we are getting a return on that investment.

To do so, you want to make at least one offer a week that can result in sales for you.

You want to be sure to provide valuable content, but you also want to make sure that you invite people to take advantage of one of your offers on a regular basis.

 

If you don’t make the ask, you won’t make the money.

 

Step 5. Master the Upsell

It takes most new small business owners awhile to grasp the concept of an upsell, but once they do, it takes their business to a whole new level.

Once you have one offer to make to your prospects, start putting together your next offer. You always want to have a place for them to go to next, always have something else to invite them to or to take advantage of.

Find out what else they want from you, then create and offer it to them.

The more products you have to offer, the more sales you’ll make because, instead of having to find new people all the time to buy your one product, you can upsell your current clients and customers into your other offer. And selling to people who have already bought from you is much easier than converting new prospects all the time.

 

Step 6. Repeat the Process

The online business sales cycle is pretty simple really. Once you’ve done it once, it’s very easy to repeat.

As you’re creating your own sales cycle, I suggest documenting what you do as you go along to make it that much easier to duplicate the next time around.

Each time you repeat the process, your list of prospects will grow and so will your income!

Top 5 Tips to Increase Your Sales BEFORE You Launch Your Offer

Would you like to increase your sales BEFORE you launch your product, program or service?

Here are my top 5 favorite ways to do just that:

1. Use Social Proof

What is “social proof”?

Simply put, we are all conditioned to watch what others are doing and follow along (think teenagers). Using social proof in your marketing helps you to influence your customers to purchase your products/services, get new prospects to sign-up for your list, and get people talking about you and your offering – and that’s just the start.

So, how do you use this psychological trigger in your marketing?

One of easiest ways is to share social media screenshots of positive comments and feedback your offer has received on your sales pages, opt-in pages, email as well as on your own social media platforms.

2. Answer your prospects #1 objection

To take “social proof” to a deeper lever, anyone who is buying anything almost always has this #1 objection: “Sure, you can do it, but can I do it?”

In addition to using yourself as an example (if appropriate) as evidence that what you’re offering does what you say it will, it’s also important to make sure you get “social proof” from people in your client/customer’s peer group.

One way is to ask your current customers or clients to give you results-based testimonials.

Ask your current customers or clients to give you testimonials that share one or more of the results they’ve received from your offer.

They simply say something like, “Before I used <name of your product, program or service> I was struggling with X. After using <name…>, I <benefit/result they received>. 

Testimonials from like this are the ones that cement the idea in your potential buyer’s mind that they can do it, too.

3. Use a time limit

Creating a sense of urgency around your offer will make it that much more enticing to potential buyers. For example, offer an early bird rate for one week only. Just knowing that you have one week to buy at a lower price creates that sense of urgency.

4. Use a limited quantity

If you are selling a physical product and you are only having 100 produced, then use that information to create the same sense of urgency you would with a time limit. Use a countdown on your website to further create the feeling that if your potential buyers don’t buy now, they may miss out.

5. Use a time or quantity limit on bonuses

Additionally, you could offer bonuses for a certain length of time (first week only) or for a certain number of products sold. For example, the first 30 buyers would get an additional bonus (valued at $XX).

These are just 5 quick tips on how to increase your sales BEFORE you launch your product, program or service. For more, come over to my free Facebook group here!

Top 5 Tips to Increase Your Sales Before Your Launch

3 Easy & Effective Alternatives or Additions to Your Coaching Packages

One of the things I enjoy about coaching is that I get to be creative with how I work with my clients, including how to create easy coaching packages that work for both of us.

In the 15+ years that I’ve been around the coaching industry, I’ve seen a rapid change from traditional 1:1 coaching of three 45 minute sessions per month for a monthly fee to session bundles, coaching programs that last as long as a year, in-person retreats, and much more.

So there are some simple ways that you can add value to your current coaching packages, or offer these alternatives to phone-only coaching as stand-alone packages, that can be very enticing to your clients.

Consider adding any of the options below to increase the value of your packages, or offer them as a stand-alone package, giving your clients a way to work with you at a more accessible investment, as well as help you as the coach to leverage your time.

Here are three of my personal favorites:

1. e-Coaching

In addition to phone sessions, one of the ways that I’ve coached my private clients is through e-coaching, or coaching via email and/or instant messaging.

I hold a firm belief that email coaching is just as powerful, if not more so, than phone coaching – and here’s why:

When you send an email asking for help, the simple act of writing and sending it creates energy that initiates the process of an answer coming to you – and not just MY answer.

When you put a problem out into the world, not only do the synapses in your brain start firing (our brains can’t help but answer questions) to come up with a solution, but the Universe starts working in order to bring you a solution as well.

It’s why experienced coaches understand that the real coaching happens between the sessions.

And e-coaching is also just a whole lot easier – you don’t have to schedule a call, you don’t have to be tied to a phone, or even a computer (you can e-coach via smartphone). And your client doesn’t have to wait until their next session to get the support they need – they just send an email!

2. Audio Coaching

For those of you who would rather coach by talking instead of typing, here’s an idea for you.

I had a private client once who was a coach and she was happy to receive questions via email from her clients. But she preferred to answer those questions via audio. What I suggested she do was to simply call into her recording service or use the app on her phone, record her answer, and then send the client the MP3 link to listen to. She loved answering client questions this way, and they loved hearing her voice. Simple and brilliant!

3. Video Coaching

Video coaching has become popular over the last few years, but there are many coaches who still prefer phone-coaching. However, video coaching is an effective alternative and might be preferred by some of your potential clients. When I was private coaching, I did video coaching most often with my clients who lived outside of the United States via Skype. It was free for both of us and it was the next best thing to being in-person.

And you could also offer video coaching in the same way that I described above in #2. For example, I had another private client who preferred recording a quick video where she could share screenshots, links and more in response to her client’s questions and requests for help. I do this for my Lively Biz students using a free service called Loom. Sometimes it’s so much easier for me to answer a question by showing how to do something via a quick Loom video vs typing it all out.

Which one of these alternatives or additions to phone coaching could you add to your current packages or that you could create a stand-alone package to offer?

I’d love to know – share with me here