Jim's Marketing Blog

Keep on

• Cash flow looks like it could be a real problem next month.  Speak with someone who knows how to fix it.  But keep on!
• The last person you gave a presentation to didn’t buy.  Give a better presentation to a better prospect next time.  But keep on!
• Your last newsletter or blog post flopped.  Write another one that’s better.  But keep on!
• Your product or service is not generating enough inquiries.  Improve your message.  But keep on!
• Traffic to your site is down or growing way too slowly.  Study the data and adjust.  But keep on!
• Your next event doesn’t have enough people booked.  Review your message and make it more attractive.  But keep on!
• You told someone about your new idea and they told you it would fail.  Ask them why, determine if it’s valid. If it is, adjust.  But keep on!

Someone you know really needs to hear this message right now.

Pass it on and make a difference!

This is part 1 of a 3 part series. Links to part 2 and 3 are at the end of the post.

I have a question for you:

If your business was perfect in every way, what would it look like?

If part of the answer includes; “I would work with great people on exciting projects and for the best fees in the industry” — You will love today’s post!

Everyone in business is a problem solver

Think about it and you quickly realise that every business exists, to solve at least 1 problem.  The bigger the problem, the fewer people there are who can solve it, and the more money they can charge for providing the answer.  That’s why the person who solves the problem “who can clean my car?” earns less, than the person who solves the problem, “who can fly me to London by end of business today?”

Why this matters to you

How many other businesses in your marketplace, can solve the same problem as you?

Quite a few, right?

So, why not consider increasing your value, by developing a uniquely valuable service?

Consider becoming the person in your niche, who not only solves problems, BUT solves them in a more remarkable way than anyone else.  Make doing business with you as interesting and rewarding for clients as possible.  If you do, there’s an extremely good chance:

• You will attract more clients.
• Earn more.
• Develop fantastic client relationships.
• Retain clients for longer.
• Generate tons of word-of-mouth referrals.
• And make the business of business a lot more fun too!

Interesting businesspeople are attractive.  They stand out.  We talk about them for all the right reasons.

How to attract the best clients and the highest fees part 2.

How to attract the best clients and the highest fees part 3.

A reader contacted me earlier.  He referred to himself as an entrepreneur.  He said that he designed graphics for websites.  I asked him what would happen to his income, if he didn’t show up for work for the next 6 months.  He said he wouldn’t make any money.

He isn’t an entrepreneur; he’s a freelancer.  People pay him in exchange for his time and that’s how he makes money.

An entrepreneur is different

An entrepreneur makes money whilst she is at the gym or walking her dog.  Her business is bigger than she is.  Her business has independent value.

Many people who refer to themselves as an entrepreneur are actually freelancers.  Where things start to get interesting for the freelancer, is when they realise this and develop ways to make money, which are not linked to the number of hours they work.  This approach scales beautifully.  It’s limitations are capped only by the limitations of your imagination.

I challenge you to think like an entrepreneur

Think of something, like this great audio product, which YOU could produce and make money from whilst you’re doing something else.  Once you do, I promise you will never look at making money in the same way again.

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Have you ever had a great idea, which you dropped because people told you you were wrong?

• The Twitter development team were wrong to build a site, where you can only post 140 character messages. Tweets are way too short.
• Steve Jobs was wrong to launch the iPad, which is a premium priced product, during one of the worst economies in modern history.  It’s just too expensive.
• The Groupon team were wrong to build a billion dollar email marketing business.  Email is dead.

The wrong way to get it right

When someone doesn’t have your vision, they will look at what you are doing and tell you that you are wrong.  The thing is, their lack of understanding can’t be the compass you use, to determine the direction of your business.  That’s because they will tell you that you are wrong, even when you are right; purely because they can’t see it or they don’t get it .

If you have done your research and you believe something is right, you need to go and build it.

Imagine this for a moment…

• No more wondering how much potential your business really has.
• No more confusion regarding the marketing and development of your business.  Just clarity.
• No more mistaking activity for progress.
• No more wasting your time or money on ineffective marketing.
• No more being on your own, when it comes to the development of your business.

Stop imagining it and start experiencing it

You work hard and deserve to see the rewards for all that commitment.  I want to help you.  Allow me to quickly explain.

So far this year, I have offered just one new place on my marketing program.  New places are rare and fill fast, because working with me, one-to-one, on the development of your business gives you a unique opportunity.  When people work with me:

• You get to attract clients and client inquiries.  This means people buy from you. You don’t have to sell.  Ever.
• You get to pick the exact type of client you work with.  This means you can build a massively valuable client list.
• You get to market your services based on value, not cost.  This means no more working for fee-sensitive clients.
• You get to increase the value of your services.  This means you become far more attractive to prospective clients.
• You get to control the path of your business growth.  This means you can plan ahead with peace of mind.

So, why am I talking about this right now, when places are so rare?

It’s because today, I am opening up 3 (yes three) new places on my extremely popular Marketing Program!  To find out more about this amazing opportunity for your business, simply use the form below.  (If you are reading this via email, click here to see the form.)

I will happily answer any questions you have.  To avoid missing out, be sure to get in touch as soon as possible.  I look forward to hearing from you!

Great marketing and an OK service is not enough, if you want to grow a successful business.

Think of it like this.  Imagine you see some snazzy marketing, which inspires you to buy something.  Then, when you use it, you find that it’s not as good as the marketing suggests.  It’s OK at best.  Below average maybe.

You are not happy. You feel like you have been duped.

What do you do?

• You may seek a refund.
• You may blog about how it failed to meet your expectations.
• You may tell your friends on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin etc, how the product failed you.

What wouldn’t you do?

• You wouldn’t buy from that company again.
• You wouldn’t give them permission to market to you again.
• You wouldn’t recommend their product to your family or friends.

Here’s the thing: No matter how good the marketing is, if the product or service behind it is just OK, you set a very low ceiling on the potential of your business.

When I start working with a new client, one of the first things I work on with them, is how to transform their product or service into something that’s of unique value.  We look for refinements and improvements, which will be of genuine value to their prospective clients.  As a result, their marketing messages become massively more attractive and their clients want to tell the world how much they love the service they receive.

It may take less thought to bring yet another OK service to the marketplace, but the return is very poor.  That’s because your prospective clients are not looking for an OK service.  Even if some of them are, most of your competitors are already providing an average service, which is why they are competing against each other based on prices or fees.  When competing providers offer an OK service, prospective clients use prices or fees to determine the best value.  That’s why I get my clients out of that fee-sensitive loop FAST, regardless of their industry or profession.

Offer more unique value than your competitors.  Get as far away from average as you possibly can.

That’s where the best clients, highest fees and most rewarding work is.

So, are you a carrier of the encouragement virus?

If you genuinely believe someone has what it takes, don’t keep it a secret.  Don’t just assume they already know.  Many people have the ability to achieve wonderful things, but sadly need outside validation before they get started.

Your words may be just the encouragement they need, to get going and do something great.

What if they fail?

If they fail, at least they tried.  That in itself, is important.  Really important!  There are few things worse, than looking back on your life and wondering “what if?” If they fail after you encourage them and they are bright, they will adjust and then try again.  Repeating that often enough will almost guarantee they succeed!

Of course, to have the biggest positive impact on the world around you, you need to give yourself permission to step outside of your own comfort zones too.  Don’t wait for someone else to tell you that you are good enough to; start that business, ask that person for a date, enter that competition, start that blog, etc.  YOU are a big deal!

Outside voices are useful and important, but you shouldn’t waste your life waiting for the approval of someone else, before you get started.

Today, there is so much information flooding the marketplace, that it’s hard to get noticed.

Your marketing messages are fighting for attention, in an sea of; tweets, Facebook updates, blog posts, emails…. you get the picture!

Reach out

So, here’s a suggestion.  As well as making your marketing messages as attractive as possible, how about you also work hard to reach out and connect with people.  I’m talking about allocating some outreach time into your working week.

You see, the people who are being swamped with all that information, ultimately wade through it on a pretty superficial level.  They scan.  They don’t absorb. What resonates, is the deeper stuff:  The personal touch.

Outreach is enormously rewarding on many levels, however, it can be time consuming work.  But that’s OK.  You don’t need to connect one-to-one with everyone in your marketplace.  Just connect with people as often as you can, in the time you have allocated for your outreach work.

The impact you create, by relating to people on a human level, is far more likely to inspire them to amplify your message and increase your reach / influence.  It’s a beautiful and effective way to do business.  It takes business back to basics, because business is all about people.

People often ask me how I find the time to update this blog as frequently as I do.  That’s before they discover that I usually work fewer than 25 hours a week!

The answer, is that I make the time for blogging, because it’s a priority activity for me and my business.  As a keen time manager, I always have the time to do the important things, by refusing to waste time on the less important things.

I certainly wouldn’t have the time to keep this blog regularly updated, if:

• I was active on more than 2 social networks Twitter and Facebook.
• I answered my phone every time it rang, rather than screen my calls.
• I had my email set to send/receive every 30 minutes, rather than when I am available to actually deal with email.
• I accepted every “can I pick your brains for free?” request I get each day, rather than place a value on my time.

I admit that I work hard, but I work hard for around 4 or 5 hours a day.  I also get more done than many people who work 10 hours a day; but are less focused on the way they invest their hours.

Here’s how I do it

I gained control of my time 15 years ago, when I decided to take some great advice from a friend.  She suggested I write a time diary.  In the time diary, I listed everything I did at work, and how long I spent on it, for a period of 5 working days.  I was immediately able to spot activities that were sucking my time up but delivering little if any real value.  This exercise also made me a lot more aware of how easily you can waste time, whilst still being extremely busy.

If you like the idea of getting more done in less time, why not try a time diary for the next 5 working days?  Be sure to list everything you do, business or pleasure, during your working day and how long you spend on it.  Then, look through that list for activities, which are taking up too much of your time, for what you get in return.  Also, look for ways to improve your efficiency on the important tasks.

The overall impact of mastering your time can be (literally) life changing.

How are your revenue and profit figures right now?

1. Some people are watching their business grow.
2. Some are watching their business plateau.
3. Some are watching their business slump.

If you are in that first group, congratulations!  Hard work and smart decisions are rewarding you, just as they always do.  However, don’t get complacent (see below.)

If you are in the second group, you need to make some changes.  It’s tiring and extremely stressful when a business is spinning its wheels.

If you are in the third group, you need to immediately focus your resources on pulling your business out of the nosedive.  In my experience, most people don’t!  They get so used to doing things a certain way, that they decide to carry on “as is” and hope things “just get better.”

From growth to a slump

The reason for this post, is that many of the people who end up in that third group, started off in the top group!  They found a way of running their business and marketing their products or services, which worked.  Then, as the marketplace changed, they didn’t.  Things started to dip and they went from growth, to stagnation.  After a while, stagnation was replaced with a drop in revenues and profits.

The good news is that this can’t happen to you.  At least not without your cooperation.

Wherever you are in that process right now, you need to be vigilant.  You need to be on the lookout for areas of your business that are under-performing.  You need to be looking for signs of possible future problems, such as:

• An over reliance on a small number of clients for too much of your revenue.
• Poor or erratic cash flow.
• Ineffective sales and marketing, which is generating too few qualified inquiries or sales.
• Toxic business practices, which could be damaging your reputation.  These range from under delivering on the service you offer your existing clients, through to spamming prospective clients with unsolicited email.

The answer?

We need to study and listen to our marketplace.  If we do, it will tell us what it needs.  For example, by listening to the challenges and problems facing them, we can develop products or services, which answer a pressing need.  It’s a lot easier to grow your business, when your service is in demand!  If you are smart enough, you will spot the opportunity first and have the marketplace to yourself – At least for a while.

Don’t stand still: No matter how things are with you and your business right now, look for ways to strengthen your position.

Here are a few things you really need to know about yourself:

• You are not a procrastinator.
• You are not a poor time manager.
• You are not a perfectionist.
• You are not a struggling business owner.
• You are not a smoker.
• You are not even a lousy joke-teller!

You are none of those things, yet those labels are commonly used by people, when they refer to themselves.  Although people almost say they are open minded and always open to fresh ideas and strategies, they tend not to stray too far from their comfort zones.  They give themselves a label and then use it, as if they were set like a statue; without the ability to change and improve.

The problem with that approach, is that we can only grow when we explore new ideas and insights and put what we discover into action.

This means losing those negative and factually incorrect labels and adopting a less confined approach to our development.

As a marketing coach, part of my role is to help clients rethink their limitations. For example, many of my clients, who now have extremely successful newsletters and blogs, started off by telling me they were poor writers.  Others said they were perfectionists, so couldn’t write because nothing would ever be good enough for them to actually use.  Others said they lacked the confidence to successfully market their business with me, yet have grown into extremely confident business people.  That’s because all those labels are temporary.  You can find out how I help people, here!

What limiting labels do you currently use to describe yourself?

Are they really you or just a temporary state, which you haven’t addressed yet?  Anyone can learn to be; motivated, confident, creative or attractive.  In fact, just about every character trait you see in the people you admire, you can acquire.  All you need is a strategy and some help to put the strategy into play.

We have all heard the saying:

Success isn’t about working hard.  It’s about working smart!

That saying is appealing.  It assures us that we can achieve whatever our definition of success is, without working hard; so long as we find the smart way to do it.  It suggests that there are some silver bullets or tricks out there, which will allow us to enjoy the good life, without working hard.

However, in reality we need to work both smart and hard.

I am fortunate to know a number of extremely successful businesspeople.  These are people who are happy, have great families and more money than they will ever need.  In every case, they work smart.  However, in every case they also work hard too – Damn hard!

Working smart and working hard

Richard Branson, with a net worth of billions, is an example of working hard and smart.  Although in his sixties, he still works on projects all over the world, spanning dozens of different ventures.  He works smart and he works hard too!

It is often said that today’s Internet millionaires / billionaires work smart and not hard, which is absolutely not the case either.  Ev Williams, who founded Blogger which he sold to Google for millions, before then founding Twitter, is known for regularly working 12-14 hour days.  Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is another person with a reputation for working long hours and occasionally sleeping at his desk.  Decades earlier, Microsoft’s Bill Gates was known for his incredible work ethic too.  What about Apple’s Steve Jobs? Jobs has been battling serious health issues for a number of years, yet has never stopped working.  The development of the iPhone and the iPad both happened after his health issues started.  All the people I mentioned there, work smart AND hard!

Hard work by itself is not enough.  My late father worked hard every day of his adult life, yet died with pennies.  Working smart by itself is not enough either.  I have met many people, who worked extremely smart, yet failed in their business because they refused to do the work required.

Always be on the look out for smarter, high leverage ways to work.  But be extremely cautious of anyone telling you that you can have it all, without having to work hard.

Someone like that will probably lie about other things too!

Today is a very important day for a lot of people.

Why?

• Today is the day they decide to get serious about their; business, relationships or health etc.
• Today is the day that they stop making excuses.
• Today is the day they say: NO MORE!
• Today is the day they will look back on years from now, as the day everything changed for them.

Of course, for the vast majority of people, today is just another day.  They want things to be better, but they haven’t reached the breakthrough point yet.  The breakthrough point is what happens when you suddenly realise that the clock is ticking – That things are not going to “just improve.”

Others reach their breakthrough point, after some kind of major incident in their life, like a landmark birthday, the arrival of a child or a health scare.  These can all snap you out of the “just another day” mindset.

One of the best things about my business, is that I regularly get to speak with people, on the day they decide to get serious about their results.  Today, I will receive email from people who have decided to stop settling for less than they deserve.  Today is their day!  People often tell me that they have read this blog for months, sometimes years, before they decided to get in touch with me.  Then their breakthrough happens and we speak.  It’s liberating.  It brings them clarity and confidence.  It’s extremely exciting.

If you think you deserve more, in any area of your life, then make today your day!

How do you feel about the future direction of your business?

Business owners tend to look to the future with either:

• Excitement
• Apprehension

If we are putting plans together today, which are designed to make a better tomorrow, then we look to the future with excitement.

If we are repeating errors that have failed us in the past, we look to the future with apprehension.

Everything was finished, before it was started

As you look around right now, everything you see started off as an idea.  The idea was then researched, refined and perfected.  Only after something is finished in the mind of it’s creator, does the process of making it tangible begin.  Long before there was anything real to show, the mind had already clearly envisioned the finished product.

The thoughts and feelings we focus on today, build our future in a very similar way.  The person looking to the future with apprehension has good reason to do so; unless they improve the quality of their thoughts and actions.  They need better ideas followed up with intelligent actions, if they want to achieve more tomorrow than their past efforts have given them today.

I see this every day, working with my clients as a marketing mentor.  People come to me, because they know they need a clear, professionally developed strategy to work from and someone they can work with, who can show them what to do.  Others read this blog, living where they don’t want to live, working with clients who undervalue them and having to lower their lifestyle expectations to meet their under-performing income – Yet elect to do nothing.

Just as our past ideas and actions have brought us to where we are today, our ideas and actions today will determine where we end up.  If you can see the kind of confidence-inspiring progress that your hard work deserves today – Keep doing what you are doing.  If you are frustrated right now and apprehensive about where your current route is taking you, get yourself a better plan.

I’m about to share one of the best pieces of advice I ever received, with you.

Big people do the small things correctly!

The small stuff matters

Many business owners will pay a lot of attention to the big stuff in their business, but give little thought to the other 95% of things, which make up their typical working day.  However, collectively, these small things, the daily tasks that so many people put so little real effort into, are of just as much, maybe more, importance to their overall success!

Here are some small things, which make a real difference:

• If you are going to meet with a prospective client for lunch, always ask if they have any dietary requirements.  You will probably be the first person who ever bothered.
• If you are going to write a blog post, make it the best post you can write that day.
• If you are speaking to someone, give them your full attention.
• If you are going to make a business call whilst you are away from the office, find somewhere with little background noise and a good signal.
• If you are going to write a letter to someone, hand sign it.  Don’t use a photocopied signature. Ever.
• Smile.

None of what I have mentioned here sounds particularly important, yet the compound impact of doing them, along with hundreds of other “little things” is enormous.