While the message and the market of your business may be different, there are some stumbling blocks that seem to pop up for even the seasoned entrepreneur.
Here are four of the ones that I frequently coach on with my private clients:
1. Not moving ahead even when they know what to do.
Almost always, this is a fear-based immobility. Whether it’s fear of failure or fear of success (the later seems more prevalent for entrepreneurs, including myself).
We come up with all kinds of excuses as to why something isn’t getting done, but most often it has nothing to do with anything other than fear of the possible result of moving forward.
If you’re afraid of failing, remember that in our online world, we get to test things out with very little risk. My favorite strategy is to ‘fail fast’. Put it out there, see what happens, tweak until you get the result you want.
If you’re afraid of success, then you need to take a look at your Big Money Why (BMW – see #4) to see how you can make it more powerful and motivating (tip: money is never enough of a motivator, believe it or not). And you need to put a process in place for how you will handle the abundance that’s to come.
2. Being self-disciplined enough to make and stick to self-imposed deadlines.
The wonderful thing about being an entrepreneur is that you’re your own boss. The tricky thing about that is most, if not all, of our deadlines are self-imposed. Which makes them very easy to move, doesn’t it? I know because I’ve struggled with this one more than once.
If we go back to knowing what your emotionally driven motivator is for the success you desire, you’ll be more likely to stick to those self-imposed deadlines – but only if that BMW is strong enough.
Here’s a simple but very powerful tip for you in sticking to your own deadlines: Make them public. When I launched my first info-product, I told my ezine list that they would be able to buy it on a certain date, which gave me about 3 weeks to get it done. And done it was.
3. Claiming leadership status and fully stepping into the role of the CEO of your business.
Once an entrepreneur gets the foundational pieces in place for their business, it’s actually easy to stay in the start-up phase, because it’s comfortable. And because often they don’t know what the next step is, what the next layer of the business should look like, to take them to the next level.
The sooner they can take on the leadership role, by becoming the CEO of their business (even if they don’t call themselves that), the faster the growth of both the entrepreneur and the business.
One of the ways you can step more fully into that role is by delegating. So if you’ve been in business for a couple of years and you’re still doing too much of the managing of it, and especially if you’re doing all the admin work, and you haven’t hired an assistant yet, it’s time. Start with one small project and add from there.
For every task in your business, ask yourself, “Is this something I should be doing?”
Because remember, even if you CAN do something doesn’t mean you SHOULD.
If the answer is no, then pass it off to a capable assistant.
4. Having an emotionally driven motivator for your Big Money Why (BMW).
This is probably the most important one…
Money is NOT enough of a motivator, no matter how much you want it, or are attached to the ’6-Figure’ or “million-dollar’ mark. There has to be a reason behind wanting it, something that is so strong that it drives you and the business forward, no matter what.
If you find things aren’t moving as quickly as you’d like, or it feels too hard much of the time, or you just aren’t using your time and talent effectively, take a look at your Big Money Why. And if you haven’t done this before, then that’s your coaching homework.
In as much detail as possible, write out why you want the financial success you do. Is it to give to your family, is it to give to others, is it to create a charitable foundation, is it to take care of elderly parents, is it to enable your children to get the best education you can give them, is it to travel and expand your world view, is it to buy a nicer home for your family, is it to give experiences to those you love – they are a thousand reasons why, but you need to be very clear of what they are for YOU before you can make them happen.
Inside the Lively Biz Business Club, we focus a lot on your Big Money Why, as it’s one of the most powerful exercises for shifting the members into passionate action in their business.
Click here to get on the wait-list to be first to find out when the Club re-opens
Want to encourage people on your email list to buy one (or more) of your products or programs sooner than later? Have a sale! I’m sharing 7 super-simple ways that you can provide great value to your audience while bringing in a great profit for you at the same time!
7 Ways to Have a Sale Today
1. Half-Off Sale
Offer your product or program for 50% off its usual price. That may seem like a big discount – and it is – which means that many more people are likely to buy it.
Or go one step further and offer all your products or programs at 50% off (except any one-on-one work with you, of course!).
I’ve been thinking about buying a few products over the past year from one site, and when they had a 50% off sale recently, I jumped at the chance to buy not just one, but three products for half-price. Give your list the chance to do the same.
2. Close-Out Sale
Do you have a product or a program that you are no longer going to offer, perhaps to make room for some new offerings? Or are you coming out with a new version of one of your offerings? Have a close-out sale by offering a deep discount.
As an added bonus, you could then offer those people who bought your offering at the close-out price that same amount in a discount if they buy the new version.
Here’s a bit of inspiration for you: One of my close-out sales brought me over $10k in less than a week.
3. Re-Gift Sale
Remember the Seinfeld episode about re-gifting? Do something similar for the stock of any of your products that have been returned. “Re-gift” the ones in good condition to a new buyer for a discount.
4. VIP Sale
Offer a coupon or promo code ONLY to your email list, or to your clients, or to those people who have bought from you before, that’s good towards the purchase of any one or all of your offerings. You can set this up in your shopping cart system very easily, so there’s no other extra work on your part.
5. Free Shipping Sale
Offer free shipping on any of your physical products for a limited time, or offer free shipping on all orders over a certain amount.
Personally, if I’m looking to purchase something online, I always search for (and almost always find) a ‘free shipping’ code before I buy.
6. Bonus Sale
Add a valuable bonus or two to your offering for a limited time. It can be something you’ve created or something from one of your colleagues that your niche would benefit from.
Leverage this kind of sale by doing a “bonus sale swap” with a colleague, where they would offer a bonus from you and vice versa. Your own sale will bring you cash, and your bonus offering for your colleague’s sale will bring you more subscribers to your list, which will ultimately bring you more cash.
7. Just Because Sale
This is a favorite of mine – having a sale just because – it’s your birthday, you want to show your gratitude to your list, it’s the 1, 5, or 10 year anniversary of when you went into business for yourself, or for any other reason you can think of.
Having a sale WILL bring in more immediate cash, but there are some cautions to take when doing so too. Only have a sale occasionally, and when you do, have a compelling reason for it. Otherwise, if it seems you’re always having a sale, you’re planting a seed in your potential buyer’s mind that your offerings may not be worth their regular price.
So, which kind of sale are you going to have to put some extra cash in your pocket today? Share with me in the comments.
Feel free to share this post with your friends and colleagues via the buttons below too – thanks!
PS: There are definitely some nuances to making a sale be really successful for you, and that’s something we talk about in the Lively Biz Business Club (my most affordable coaching option). To find out more, be sure to get on the wait list here today, ok?
When I was studying for my MBA, my most challenging class was statistics. And even though I managed an A- in the class, it took every one of the few analytical brain cells I had to do so.
So when I sit down to analyze the statistics of my business every year, I’m still surprised to find myself engrossed, fascinated, excited and practically dancing for joy. Armed with this critical data, now I know exactly where to spend my time and efforts going forward to receive the highest and best rate of return.
I ran a total of about 10 reports, but let me share some of what I learned specifically from my shopping cart’s reports:
CRM Stats
The backend system I use (Infusionsoft) has the ability to run sales reports in a variety of ways. Below are four of the reports I run, what my results are, and how you can apply the results to your business:
a. My Monthly Sales Totals…
…showed me how many sales I made each month, and from that information, I discovered that my best month financially was November, followed very closely by December, then January.
I reviewed my marketing and sales activities (in other words, the offers I made) for that month, and what I found was this:
In November, I opened the Lively Biz Business Club membership for the first time.
In December, I opened the Lively Biz Accelerator small group coaching program for the first time.
In January, I offered a handful of spots for private Business Breakthrough Virtual Retreats with me, which always sell out very fast.
While the Club has a low price point, I designed and followed a specific launch plan, which resulted in a lot more enrollments. If you only have higher price points in you business model at the moment, consider if you can add a lower-priced leveraged offer to your menu of services.
Both the Accelerator and the Business Breakthrough Virtual Retreats have higher price points, so if you’ve already developed some products or programs at the lower-priced end of your funnel, consider adding a more comprehensive program at a higher price to your offerings to increase your bottom line.
b. My Sales by Campaign…
… showed me which special offers were the ones you were most interested in taking advantage of. Now I know which offers to consider repeating, or offering on another product or program in the future.
This is something you can do as well. Guessing if a special campaign you ran worked well or not doesn’t make good business sense. Tracking actual numbers does, however, and it’s super-simple to do if you have a backend system that has that feature.
c. My Sales by Clients/Customers…
… showed me who my top clients/customers are, what they’ve bought, and how much they’ve invested in my offerings. And since I know that one of the most effective ways to grow a business is to make additional offers to those who have already bought from me, you can bet that not only will I do that, but I’ll do it in a way that makes them feel special – because they are to me – by offering them special access or discounts or additional benefits as my way of thanking them for their continued business and loyalty.
If you track this information, you can do the same and increase your sales and your customer loyalty at the same time.
d. My “Where did you hear about us” Report…
… showed me that even though I thought that some of my online networking efforts weren’t really paying off, mainly because I didn’t think I was focusing enough time on them, I was wrong. It seems even the small amount I had been doing was making an impact.
So now I know the top three places to really focus those efforts going forward. If you’ve found online networking to be a struggle for you, tracking this information makes what can seem like an overwhelming marketing activity (some lists are SO active) into an extremely manageable and once-again enjoyable one.
I gleaned all of this information from just four reports from Infusionsoft. And this doesn’t include the reports I ran for my web stats via Google Analytics.
Measuring the results of your business activities is critical to your success, and anyone can do it (it’s really one of those “if I can, anyone can” kind of things). I really want to encourage you to take a look at where you’ve been over the past 6-12 months, analyze that data, and make some strategic decisions about where you want to focus your efforts going forward to get where you want to be.
I’d love to hear which of these tips you’re willing to embrace today. Feel free to share with me below.
Whether you’re publishing an ezine, sending an ecourse, posting to a blog, or building an email list of clients and customers in another format, there are a few things you need to know to make sure that you’re complying with the legal aspects of sending email as well as for making your list-building efforts that much more effective.
1. Only Use Permission-Based Email Marketing
Simply put, opt-in email (also called ‘permission-based’) is email sent to people who have given you permission to contact them via email. So if someone hasn’t directly requested information from you, they should not be on your opt-in list.
2. Single or Double Opt-in?
Depending on the email list service you’re using in your business, you may have a choice between single or double opt-in email. With single opt-in, someone gives you their email address once and they are added to your list. With double opt-in (also know as confirmation opt-in), someone gives you their email address, to which they then receive an automated response from your list service asking them to click a specific URL to confirm that they do in fact want to be added to your list. Only once they click that link are they then added to your list.
So, which should you use? It depends, but for your main email list, I want to encourage you to use the double opt-in process. It means that you will lose a certain percentage of those people who signed up for your list because they then don’t confirm their subscription, but it protects you from being labeled as a spammer – something you want to avoid at all costs.
3. Post Your Privacy Policy
Wherever you give people the option to sign up for your list, make certain your privacy policy is clearly stated. Something like “We will never share your email address, period” should be fine.
4. Have a Clear Unsubscribe Link
In every email you send to your list, have a clear way for your reader to unsubscribe if they desire. Usually this is in the form of an unsubscribe URL at the bottom of the email. When someone clicks on the link, they should be taken to a page where they can remove their email address from your list. Just make sure your unsubscribe function works!
5. Multiple Lists
In the beginning, you’ll only be setting up one list, most likely for your ezine. But at some point you’ll want to have multiple lists, for different products or programs you offer, to more easily connect with specific people on your list.
For example, I have a list for my ezine subscribers, one for the members of my group coaching program, one for my live event, and several others that perform various functions for me.
When you’re choosing an email list service provider, this is something you want to keep in mind – the ability to create and manage multiple lists.
6. Q’em up
Being able to compose your email messages ahead of time and then queue them to be delivered on the date and/or interval of your choosing is another great benefit to using an email list service provider.
For example, you can set up an 30-lesson ecourse to be delivered once a day for 30 days. Or create 26 issues of your ezine and set them up to go out every two weeks. This is one of my favorite things about using an email list service – it’s the ‘set it and forget it’ kind of marketing – my favorite kind.
I use and highly recommend Aweber as your email list service provider.
7. What about my shopping cart?
Some shopping carts also act as an email list service, but I actually recommend you use both Aweber along with your shopping cart.
Here’s what I mean:
Use Aweber for your listbuilding, autoresponders, ezine (and ecourse) distribution, and any other mailings to your list. Let Aweber be your email list manager.
Use PayPal to process payments (it integrates with Aweber). THEN when you start consistently bringing in $500-$1000/month in income, sign up with a shopping cart That’s when the fees of using a merchant account and a shopping cart become a wash.
Use your shopping cart for selling downloadable products, payment processing (it also integrates with PayPal), subscription/recurring payments, running special offers, affiliate marketing, and housing your customer list (meaning those people who have bought from you).
Only use your shopping cart’s autoresponder system for confirmation emails when a customer buys something from you, and only use their broadcast system when you want to send an email (for a special offer, for example) to your customers.
With this method, your MAIN list of prospects (which will include both those people who have bought from you, assuming they’ve come to your offers via your communication to them via your list, and your potential clients and customers) are always kept at Aweber, so you never have to move (and lose) your list once you migrate from PayPal to your shopping cart.
I’d love to know your thoughts – please feel free to comment below – thanks!
Hi there!
I had a email conversation with a potential high-level client several years ago that went something like this…
“Alicia, I have a successful life coaching practice – full client roster, mostly via referrals, steady 6 figures in income, and I want to bring my business online. I’m interested in your Platinum program – can we talk?”
I told her she should consider going through my 21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success System™ instead.
My response surprised her. So much so she graciously asked why it seemed she wasn’t qualified for my Platinum program…(because <insert name>, <insert name> and <insert name> had already told her she was for their programs.
I explained it wasn’t that she wasn’t qualified at all. It was that she was already successful offline and she didn’t NEED a $24k Platinum program to bring that success online.
She only needed to implement the 21 Steps (for $297-) to get the foundation of a successful online business in place, and THEN we could talk about Platinum.
Or I could personally lead her through the 21 Steps program for $24k and call it Platinum… 😉 Her choice… You can guess which she choose, thanking me for pointing her to just what she needed next (and saving her thousands of dollars too).
I’m so tired of hearing stories from you about spending thousands of dollars BEFORE you want or even need to, just to get those critical underpinnings in place.
So I want you to have the same choice I gave to her – and for even less of an investment than that…
I’m offering you the 21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success System™ for just $97-.
Click here to get your copy right now:
https://aforest.leadpages.net/21-steps/
This is the final time I will be offering this program, even though it’s been my bestselling offer since 2006 – it’s simply time to make space for something new to emerge.
This $97- deal ends on Saturday, June 6, so don’t wait, ok?
Click here to get your copy right now:
https://aforest.leadpages.net/21-steps/
Cheers,
~ A
PS: The program comes with access to the private 21 Steps Facebook Group as well as 8 Video Trainings of the entire course… it’s a screaming deal. 😉
Click here to get your copy right now:
https://aforest.leadpages.net/21-steps/
While the message and the market of your business may be different, there are some stumbling blocks that seem to pop up for even the seasoned entrepreneur.
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