Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

You’re better. They’re more successful. Why?

By |

marketing balance, marketing tips, marketing ideas

Photo | Andrew Draper

Today, I’d like to help you avoid maybe the most frustrating thing in business. I’m referring to watching your less capable competitors gaining more of the market, and making more money, than you do.

It all starts with understanding the following.

The most successful provider and the best provider, are seldom the same provider. In fact, it rarely happens.

That’s because being the best doesn’t automatically mean people will notice you, believe you, buy from you or hire you.

Why is that?

Commercial success requires a critically important balance.

You need to balance the development of a great service, with the development of a strategy to earn the attention, trust and business/patronage of your marketplace.

Here’s why that balance is essential.

  • If your prospective clients don’t know you exist, it doesn’t matter how exceptional your service or product is, because you’re not an option for them.
  • If your prospective clients DO know you exist, but your marketing doesn’t inspire them to trust you, they won’t hire you or buy from you.
  • And if your prospective clients know you exist, and they trust you–but your marketing doesn’t motivate them to take action, they won’t hire you or buy from you.

Without that balance in place: Trying to grow a business is extremely frustrating, as less capable competitors grab your share of the marketplace. You will already know competitors in your space, who are nowhere near as good as you, yet they’re flying.

With that balance in place: You get all the rewards your hard work and dedication merits.

Thankfully, this is directly under our control as business owners. And it’s easy. All it takes is a decision. The decision to adjust the balance, so our business attracts the volume and quality of clients we deserve.

But here’s the challenge

It’s even easier to ‘keep on keeping on’ and hope things just get better. Which is why this message is ignored by most people I share it with. It’s why there are business owners still whining about how unlucky they are 5 or even 10-years after they started their business.

It’s not luck.

It’s a decision. THIS decision.

And as business owners, it should be the easiest, most obvious business decision we ever make.

Proof: Your success potential is unlimited

By |

marketing global, world wide

Are you ready for some great news?

Here it is. And not only is this news great, it’s provably, factually correct.

My friend, you now have free access to every prospective client or customer on the planet.

This means your potential to successfully grow your business is literally, not figuratively, limitless.

The proof?

  • Podcasting gives you a free, global radio show.
  • WordPress gives you a free magazine, plus free, global distribution.
  • Social networks give you free access to a global audience.
  • YouTube gives you a free, global TV channel.
  • Email gives you a free, global communication channel, which scales to infinity.
  • Zoom gives you free, global access to video meetings.

This means that today, with no marketing budget, you can reach every town and city on the planet. That kind of unlimited reach previously cost millions, lots of millions, and was only available to the world’s biggest corporations.

Now though, it’s all yours with no barrier to entry. With just a laptop on your kitchen table, the world is yours. Isn’t that amazing? 

My advice?

Stop

Stop following the masses of small business owners, who ignore the greatest business opportunity in human history. Let them carry on trying to grow their business in 2025, the way people did it 40-years ago. 

Start

From today onward, no matter how tough things are for your business, focus on the unlimited potential that’s freely available to you.

It’s yours for the taking.

How many is “enough”?

By |

Marketing focus

I have a very quick, yet powerful marketing tip for you today. It seems simplistic, yet it’s something that the majority of small business owners fail to do. And it’s essential for their success.

Decide what you want from your business, in all the key areas, not just financial areas. Then, turn that want into a target, by putting a number on it.

You can’t hit a target that doesn’t exist

Almost every business owner has a numeric target for profits, revenues etc. However, they tend not to have specific number based targets for the areas of their business, which are essential for achieving those financial targets.

For example, there are things you’ll need to do in order to attract 4,000 new customers over the next 12 months, which are irrelevant if you need to attract 40. The number is what gives you your target. And your target will then rule in and rule out, certain strategies. It will also let you accurately measure whether you’re on track or not.

I speak with business owners regularly, who are wasting time and money on advertising, social media, promotions, sponsoring events… which have absolutely nothing to do with the actual goals or needs of their business.

I see this most often with accountants, freelancers, trainers, lawyers, consultants, designers, coaches, etc. They almost always go wide and shallow, rather than narrow and deep.

They try and reach as many people as possible (wide), with social media, advertising, promotions and such (shallow). They’re being vaguely relevant to a wide number of people, rather than directly relevant to a smaller number of targeted prospective clients. And vaguely relevant marketing is 100% ineffective. It totally fails to capture attention and is too weak to motivate anyone to do anything.

Here are just a few areas where you need number-based targets, in order to make the right marketing and business development decisions.

  • How will you know when you are attracting enough high quality sales leads? Put a number on it.
  • How will you know when you are getting enough word of mouth referrals? Put a number on it.
  • How will you know when your business is retaining enough existing clients? Put a number on it.
  • How will you know when your profitability is high enough? Put a number on it.
  • How will you know when you have enough subscribers? Put a number on it.
  • How will you know when you have enough visitors to your website? Put a number on it.
  • How will you know when your professional network is large enough? Put a number on it.

Let those numbers, which are specific to what you want from your business, guide you. It will give you clarity like never before. You’ll be able to make better decisions and focus on the right activities, to achieve your main goals.

Let your competitors grow YOUR business!

By |

marketing, usp, different, ego

There’s an old saying that tells us, let your past make you better, not bitter.

I learned the hard way that we, as business owners, need to use a revised version of that saying: let your competitors make you better, not bitter. 

When I started my business it grew very big, very quick and for a few years, I earned a ton of money. 

Until…

I started to get fewer enquiries from new prospects. Then, even fewer new enquiries. Around that same time, I started hearing about a marketing agency that had moved into my area, focusing, like me, on small business owners. I started to resent the new agency. I assumed they were telling prospects anything, just to get the work in and that they’d soon be found out.

So, I ignored them.

Until it became impossible to ignore them.

It turns out they were good. Very good.

The agency was a partnership of 2 super smart professionals. They were also hard working and agile. There was clearly no point allowing my ego to resent their success and blame them for my situation.

So, I stopped being bitter. Then, focused everything on getting better.

Here’s the key lesson I hope you find useful, from my mistake.

If you have a competitor or a number of competitors ahead of you, there’s always a reason. The challenge is that it’s hard to admit to ourselves that a competitor is stronger than us in 1 or more areas. 

When we look at our high-performing competitors with non-ego clarity, here’s what we’ll typically find.

  • They market their services better than we do.
  • They offer an outstanding service.
  • They offer a valuable variation of a service that’s only available from them.
  • They’ve found a cost-effective way to deliver their service, and pass some of that onto their customers or clients. 
  • And some do all of the above, plus more.

As I discovered, it can be painful to admit that we need to up our game. That we need to improve. That the competition, who some see as their enemy, is doing something better then we are. That we are the cause, and the cure, of our situation. 

But when we do… and truly believe it’s down to us… we’re 90% of the way to what can be our greatest success ever.

Why?

Because we’ll accept we need to make improvements. And when we focus on making improvements, our actions follow. We’ll do the work or get the help we need.

And THAT’S what’s needed for us to finally enjoy the results we’ve always wanted.

Follow-up: Increase conversion rates up to 80%

By |

Marketing, follow-up, following up customer

I’d like to share a way for you to quickly improve your sales conversion rates by up to 80%. All with a simple adjustment to your follow-up process.

When I say the adjustment is simple, it really is. However, right now, you may find it tricky. So, I’m going to show you what the adjustment is, then how to make it a simple process.

It starts with some data.

According to data from Sopro, “Sending three follow-up emails can increase your success rate by over 80%“.

There are lots of similar studies and all of them show very impressive results. The number of follow-ups changes and the success percentage changes, depending on your industry, etc. One thing is crystal clear though: if we follow-up enough times, our results will improve and the improvement will be considerable.

What stops most businesses from following-up often enough?

In my conversations with small business owners, it’s mostly down to 2 things.

  • Not wanting to be seen as a nuisance.
  • Not having a follow-up structure in place. When it’s random, confidence drops. I’ll show you a simple follow-up structure in a moment.

We’re not being a nuisance when we follow-up

When we follow-up on a prospect’s interest, we’re helping them avoid missing out. Our services or products are important enough for them to have responded to us or to have contacted us for information.

However, after a few days, our prospect has probably forgotten our email. They’ve had urgent requests from their customers, urgent meetings to attend… just like you and me. Yes, it’s important to them. But people’s attention is focused on the urgent, far more than the important.

How do we get the follow-up right?

Develop a follow-up structure

Here’s a simple framework that you can adjust to suit you and your business.

In general, I recommend you follow-up at least 3 times, 5 working days apart.

Use different send times.

  • Send 1 in the morning.
  • 1 at lunchtime.
  • 1 later in the afternoon.

Why?

Different people have different times of the day when they’re busiest. By following-up at 3 different times, we ensure hitting their optimal time at least once.

A few notes

You can follow-up using different platforms. Email, phone or social media can all work great. It can be very effective to use at least 2 different forms of contact.

When following-up, it’s important not to say sorry for interrupting them! You’re not an interruption. You’re a professional who wants to help and do what’s best for the prospect. Only amateurs let things fizzle out.

No prospect is the same every time you contact them. They have times when their cash flow is a problem. They also have times when their cash situation is excellent. They have times when they feel anxious. They have times when they feel confident. You get the idea. Only by putting a follow-up strategy in place do you stand the best chance of catching their attention at the right time.

Before you decide not to give this a try, consider this. How many new clients or additional sales have you been 1 follow-up away from over the years?

A personal note: I discovered this the hard way. I used to only follow-up once or twice. I then discovered the difference it can make to follow-up at least 3 times. I’d been in business 2-years back then and it lost me a fortune.

How to turn a ‘no’ into a ‘yes’!

By |

marketing tip, make prospect say yes,

When a prospective client or customer decides not to hire us or buy from us, how can we turn their no into a yes? And how can we do this, even when they’ve had their objections or concerns fully answered and they still say ‘no’?

Faced with that kind of rejection, there are 3 broad ways we can choose to respond.

  1. We could just leave it. They’ve made their decision. End of story.
  2. We could reply and let them know why they’re wrong and make sure they know they’ve made a big mistake. If we know the competitor who won, we could also include all the bad stuff we know about the lousy dirt-bag.
  3. Or we could contact them and be more genial, positive and helpful to them, than if we had won the contract!

Yes, it’s number 3 I’m going to focus on. Because it’s exceptionally effective.

Turning a prospect’s no into a yes

Imagine how the following might work, as a massively more effective way to respond to a prospect’s ‘no’.

  • You contact the prospect and thank them for the time they spent with you or with your proposal.
  • You also let them know, up-front, that you respect their decision. This is important. It shows you’re not doubting their ability as a decision maker.
  • You add that as a result of their decision, you’re working to improve your proposal or presentation.
  • You then find something generous to say about the competitor who won, so long as it’s true. Nothing sarcastic or tongue-in-cheek, but truly gracious.
  • And finally, you let them know that if they ever need anything, you’re there for them and happy to help.

Here’s what we know for absolute certain. Very, very few people respond with that type of good-natured, yet professional strategy. But when they do, they get remembered for the very best of reasons. It’s exceptionally powerful and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen it work.

Here’s what can happen

Here are just some of the outcomes this can generate for people, who were originally rejected.

In many cases, the prospect who rejected them suddenly wonders if they made the wrong decision, in choosing the other provider. I’ve personally seen this result in immediate about-turns, with the rejected provider winning the deal. 

Much more commonly, I’ve seen the rejected provider given the contract, as soon as the winning provider screws up!

It’s as if the prospect is unconsciously looking for their original choice to fail, after becoming fully aware what a wonderful provider they rejected. By respecting the prospect’s decision and leaving the door wide open to them, the rejected provider makes it extremely easy for the prospect to contact them. 

But that’s not all!

Ask anyone who uses this approach and they’ll confirm that it also results in a number of referrals, from the prospects who didn’t change their mind about hiring the rejected provider.

I’ve used this strategy for years and seen amazing results. My clients have, too. So give it a try. You literally have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Tiny tweaks. Huge wins

By |

small business, marketing tips, business development,

One of the quickest ways to improve your results, is to spot and fix the tiny things that can make a big difference to your business.

Here are some ideas to quickly get you started.

Sham spam

In 2024, I almost lost two, high-quality enquiries from people who became new clients. It was down to what I call sham spam.

Here’s what it is and how to avoid it.

Yes, I know you check your spam email folder. I’m specifically referring to the anti-spam folder on your website, designed to filter spammy messages from reaching you. Genuine business contact form enquiries are sometimes wrongly filtered as spam and you never see them. I learned this one the hard way! It doesn’t happen often, but often enough to justify checking occasionally.

Why not check your spam folder after you’ve finished reading this? It takes very little time.

Customer connections

Regularly make time to connect with at least one of your clients. This incudes former clients. Not to sell them something. Simply to ask how they’re doing and catch up with them. Business relationships become stronger, when they’re based on more than just selling.

Ongoing communication with your clients also helps you to better understand their challenges, their needs and their wants. This understanding makes it easier and less risky, for you to successfully create new services or products.

Pathway planning

If you don’t know where you’re going, every path will take you there. That’s unproductive. It scatters your focus. It leads to dead ends. It’s also why I recommend you plan your days, your weeks and your months in advance.

After all, how can you know if things are going according to plan, if you don’t have a plan?

Flakey forms

This idea takes no time and might stop you from losing important sales enquiries. Go to your website and make sure your contact forms and subscriber forms are working. Often, a form will look perfect when it’s not functioning correctly. So, test your forms by filling-in the required information and make sure everything is okay. It only takes a few minutes, but it could help you avoid missing-out on valuable leads or new subscribers. This is especially the case, whenever you update the software on your website or have any work done on it. 

I hope you found these ideas useful. If you did, remember to share them with your friends.

10 Reasons your business isn’t growing (And how to fix each one)

By |

why business isnt growing, fix it

If you’re wondering, “Why isn’t my business growing?” this information packed article is written just for you. I’m going to share 10 extremely common reasons why your business is not growing that limit or stop the growth of a business, PLUS how to quickly turn things around.

Let’s get started.

Your business isn’t growing, because you stopped growing

Your business is a reflection of the decisions you make and your decisions are based on what you know. So, for your business to grow, you need to grow. After all, you can’t give your business the benefit of knowledge, which you don’t have.

How to fix it

Read the books. Study those who’ve achieved what you want to achieve. Seek expert advice. Grow. Then watch your business grow too.

Your business is not growing because you’re selling based on price

This only works if you’re the lowest priced alternative, and you’re not. Your prospective clients can go to Google and find a lower priced alternative in seconds. Only one provider can be the lowest priced and it changes daily, sometimes hourly, as desperate business owners price-drop in an effort to attract sales.

It takes a huge amount of planning and a watertight strategy, to sell based on being lowest priced and still make a worthwhile profit. Some big brands manage to succeed on wafer thin margins, but it’s a very precarious approach.

Usually, small businesses only market based on being low priced, because it’s easy to lower prices or fees. It takes very little effort and zero creativity, to simply undercut your competitors. We call this the race to the bottom. It’s a race you don’t want to win, as you end up working for peanuts and attracting the lowest value clients.

Clients you attract through low fees are the easiest to attract and the easiest to lose, when a competitor decides to undercut you.

How to fix it

Instead of selling based on being the lowest priced, look for opportunities to add more value to what you do. Not only will this make your business more profitable, it will allow you to compete for better clients… those who value you and what you do.

You’re starving your business of the marketing it needs

No matter how great your business is, unless you market it correctly, no one will know. Sadly, it’s a fact that an average business that’s marketed correctly, will always outperform a wonderful business that has ineffective marketing. This is why some lousy businesses make a fortune, whilst some great little businesses struggle.

By starving your business of professional marketing, by default, you’re relying on amateur marketing. This makes no sense, as it is both more expensive, and vastly less effective, than getting expert help.

How to fix it

In a nutshell: If you want great marketing results, invest in great marketing.

Your business is not growing because your branding doesn’t work

Yes, if people knew how great you were, they’d hire you. But when they connect with you for the first time, all they have to form their decision on, is what they see. That’s why your image matters so much.

Here’s a question for you to ponder: How do you look, when a prospective client encounters your business branding / image for the first time?

Most small business owners operate behind naff logos, poorly designed websites and amateur looking social medis accounts. If you want prospective clients to consider you a professional, you need to look the part. No matter what promises you make, what testimonials you offer or what guarantees you provide, no one will take any notice, if your image looks like a DIY project.

How to fix it

So, at least invest in a professional logo for your business and some decent photography for your social networking accounts. An amateur (or dated) logo and photograph dents your credibility and will lose you a fortune. The same is true of an unprofessional looking or dated website.

Give your business the impact it deserves. And attract the clients your business deserves.

Your business isn’t growing because you’ve camouflaged yourself

This is one of the most common mistakes made by small business owners. Very, very few small businesses stand out. Perhaps 1 in every 10,000. Instead, they opt for the fake safety of being just like their competitors.

This is why we find that when we look at the providers in any industry, they seem so similar. You could swap them around and no one would notice.

They offer a similar range of services. They make similar promises. They charge similar fees. In effect, they become invisible. Almost impossible to tell apart. They have camouflaged themselves within the masses.

How to fix it

If you want to stand out, do something outstanding. Something remarkable. Something uniquely valuable. Find a new service, which your competitors don’t provide. Develop a new pricing model.

Just don’t be like all the others, if you want to get noticed.

You’re associating with the wrong people

There’s a direct link between how we think, and the people we habitually associate with.

  • If we associate with people who inspire us, we feel inspired.
  • If we associate with people who encourage us and motivate us to stretch, we grow.

That’s why it pays to be selective regarding the people we associate with. For example, when we associate with people who are doing better than we are, the natural inclination is for us to rise to their level. Of course, the opposite is also true. When we associate with people who are doing as well as us, or less well, we find ourselves spinning our wheels.

As Jim Rohn used to say about potential: “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”.

How to fix it

So, choose wisely. Associate with people who will inspire you to be better. People who will encourage you and motivate you to be the best you can be.

You’re networking with the wrong people

In business, it’s extremely important to build great connections with influential people. This is the exact opposite of what the typical small business owner does. They go for numbers instead and look in the worst possible places.

Think about it: We’ve all met business owners who struggle to find new clients, even though they’re members of a networking group and have hundreds, maybe thousands of Linkedin contacts.

That should be impossible.

Right?

Surely, with so many contacts, these struggling business owners would be able to reach out with a message and quickly attract more client enquiries than they need. However, this never happens. Why? Because they are connected to business owners who lack the influence and contacts, to be able to make a difference!

How to fix it

The most successful business owners use the exact opposite approach. I recommend you do the same. It looks like this: They deliberately target the most influential people in their marketplace and put a strategy together, to connect with them. They do this months before they ask anything from them.

And no, you will not find the most influential people in networking clubs, asking struggling business owners for introductions. You’ll have to do a little research. But that’s fine. You’re aiming for quality, not numbers.

Your business isn’t growing, because you’ve become comfortable

Small business owners usually start off with great plans, but somewhere along the way they settle. Instead of focusing on building their business, so it provides them with the rewards they want, they switch.

They switch to lowering their lifestyle expectations, so it meets the limitations of their under performing business.

How to fix it

It’s up to you to switch things back the way they should be! This means leaving your comfort zone, setting exciting goals and then making the commitment to take the action required.

You’re getting too few referrals, so your business isn’t growing

Business owners who get too few referrals have to quickly figure out why their clients and associates are not referring them. This is a tough challenge to face. It means accepting there’s a serious problem and then being willing to fix things.

Yes, it’s serious, extremely serious, if you get too few referrals.

Not only are you missing out on a regular supply of valuable leads, your clients and associates, for whatever reason, do not want to recommend you. And there’s always a reason.

How to fix it

A customer survey may help you find out why. However, honest conversations with those whose opinions you trust are often extremely useful too.

Just as importantly, when you get the feedback you need, make sure you do something with it. It’s hard sometimes to accept you have areas of your business, which you need to improve. I’ve seen business owners ignore really valuable feedback, believing they’re already offering an amazing service.

Don’t make that mistake. Listen to what the feedback is telling you. Then take appropriate action.

You’re not failing often enough

Many small business owners let their fear of failure stop them from putting their ideas into action. The challenge with that mindset, is that without trying fresh ideas, you stagnate by default.

When a business is new it’s easy to risk everything. After all, unless you start out with a ton of money behind you, (like Sir Richard Branson and Seth Godin), you have nothing to lose.

However, once your business is established the penalty for failing seems bigger.

Here’s why:

  • Business owners tend to over estimate the price of failure. They imagine all kinds of unrealistic worst case scenarios.
  • To make things worse, they also tend to under estimate the potential rewards. They seem unaware that just one good idea can improve their business beyond recognition.

The fear of failure is the biggest hurdle to your success. It robs you of opportunity. It causes you to play it safe, which is the riskiest thing a business owner can do.

How to fix it

Interestingly, the most successful business owners see failure very differently.

It looks like this:

  • If they try something and it doesn’t work, they learn from it. They then invest the lesson in their next idea. This makes them far more likely to succeed the next time. So, they win.
  • If they try something and it works, they learn from it and earn from it. So, they win.

That mindset regarding failure is what I recommend you work on. It was an area of my own development that needed a lot of improvement. But when you learn the commercial value of failure, everything starts to fall into place. It’s like removing a blockage that’s been a barrier to your success. You will never look back.

Now what?

If your business isn’t growing the way you want it to, it’s likely that several or more of those 10 reasons require your attention. Put them right and you’ll enjoy the rewards. So, take some time today to focus on just one of those points. The sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll achieve the results you know you deserve.

Photo: Shutterstock.

Here’s how the best paid service providers earn the highest fees

By |

marketing, service providers

If you’re a service provider, your income is based on just 2 things.

1. The value you bring. This is what determines how much your clients pay you. Between the best paid and the lowest paid, there can be a factor of hundreds and hundreds of percent. Here’s an example I have used many times. My friend hired a photographer for a product shoot in London. The person he hired charged £17,000 for the shoot. The lowest quote for the same shoot, on the same date, with the same remit, was just over £900.

2. How well you market the value you bring. This is what attracts the attention of your prospective clients. It’s what communicates your value in a way that motivates people to hire you.

Each of those areas can be improved. And by focusing on both areas, they leverage one another. When this happens, it radically improves everything for you.

Compounded for spectacular results

That’s right. You get the financial reward of charging 5x, 10x or whatever. Plus, you’re also attracting more clients. These combine and compound. The results are transformational.

The best part (other than the massive financial rewards)? All of this is possible, by focusing your attention and activity on just 2 things.

Business owners who work on those areas correctly, don’t just improve their results. They dramatically improve everything about their business and their financial future. This isn’t marginal gains I’m talking about. It’s life-changing. You know what always amazes me? Most service providers reading this will find it compelling, or at least very interesting. And they will do nothing.

Consider this for a moment.

Think about how amazing things would be for you at the end of 2025, if you decided now to do something, so you can correctly apply those 2 ideas.

You can do it.

How do I know?

Because I’ve literally lost count of how many people I have seen go from charging average and below average fees, to charging vastly more and enjoying all the benefits that brings.

12 Quick tips that are great for your business

By |

marketing good for business

It’s good for your business…

When you feed your mind with rich mental protein and take care of your body.

When you make short-term decisions that are consistent with your long-term plans.

When you hire amazing people and pay them what they’re worth.

When you build a reputation as a trusted source of value.

When you connect with the right kind of people.

When you pause to reflect before saying, publishing or sending anything important.

When you start each morning thinking about the things you’re grateful for.

When you start your working day, writing a list of things you want to achieve. And close each day, with a review of the things you’ve learned.

When you build your primary marketing channel on a platform you control, such as your website or newsletter. Social media platforms change their rules and algorithms, which can have a devastating impact on your business.

When you treat different clients differently, according to their unique needs.

When you make promises to your clients and deliver on them.

When you learn to absolutely LOVE what you do. Because work becomes joy and this improves literally everything.

Photo by Dylan Gillis on Unsplash

Give it away

By |

give to receive, jim connolly marketing

Here’s a very quick tip, which can dramatically improve things across your entire business.

As someone who has mentored thousands of people over the years, I’ve found that the reason a business isn’t doing great, is often because the business owner isn’t feeling great. Perhaps they don’t feel as motivated, confident or inspired as they would like to be. 

The reason this matters is that our feelings guide our decisions, and our decisions guide our actions. These actions are what determine our results and therefore the success of our business. 

I’ve discovered that the fastest way to genuinely become motivated, confident, inspired (or experience any positive feeling), is for you to give these feelings to others.

Allow me to explain.

My epiphany

I noticed that whenever a client or friend came to me because they were, for example, lacking motivation, and I started to build up their motivation, it always left me feeling massively more motivated.

Then I noticed the exact same thing happened when I helped people feel more confident, inspired, courageous, resourceful, optimistic, fired up or anything else. I would immediately feel radically stronger in whatever area I’d helped them with.

I shared this idea with others and found they had identical, or very similar experiences to mine. 

Here’s what makes this so powerful.

When you give these amazing feelings to others, you become a source of the very thing you give. And it’s an endless source. Because as long as you keep giving, you’ll keep receiving.

It’s a simple technique, which can strengthen the core of everything you do. And you can access it as often as you want to. I use it daily.

Interestingly, this process works regardless of how you do it; face-to-face, Zoom, phone, email, one-to-one / a group of people, social media, podcast, blog post, a handwritten note or any other form of communication.

The next time you want to think more productively and make better business decisions, identify the key feeling or feelings you’re lacking in. Then give others those same feelings.

Don’t wait for motivation, energy, confidence, creativity, calmness or anything else to arrive. Give it away and make it appear.

It’s a wonderful way to enrich yourself, and by extension, enrich others.

The false assumptions that destroy your results

By |

Marketing tip, advice, ideas

Your sales numbers aren’t adding up. You know you should be attracting more clients. But something’s clearly not working. The culprit? A good place to look is false assumptions.

When marketing campaigns fall flat or client acquisition stalls, we naturally look for tactical fixes. But the real problem often runs deeper. It’s not that your execution is wrong. It’s that your entire approach is built on faulty premises.

I’ve seen this pattern countless times. A business owner pours energy into strategies that feel logical, but rely on assumptions that simply aren’t correct.The numbers can’t add up when the foundation is flawed.

Let me show you exactly what I mean, with a common example that might sound familiar.

Failing to check the source

Small business owners are often poorly advised. If they wrongly assume the advice is correct when it’s false, and then follow the advice, they’ll lose money, waste time and miss opportunities.

The golden rule here is to always check the source of advice, before you act on it.

For example, if a sincere friend or contact gives you marketing advice, make sure they have the marketing background required. As Jim Rohn used to tell us, ‘sincerity is not a test of truth. It’s possible to be sincerely wrong!’.

Equally, before you pay for advice from a marketing provider, check them out. As you may have already discovered, there are plenty of ineffective marketing providers out there.

The easiest way to check a marketing provider out is to look at how they market their own business.

  • Effective marketing providers attract clients via referral and reputation; so people already know us and our work long before they hire us.
  • Ineffective marketing providers are unable to attract enough clients or get enough referrals. You find them at networking events hunting for clients or on Linkedin pestering people for leads. That’s a huge red flag.

Here’s another cause of false assumptions.

You don’t need more leads

Imagine the following scenario.

A small business owner urgently needs more sales or more new clients. However, they make a false assumption. They wrongly assume they need more sales leads or client leads.

Their focus is now on lead acquisition tactics, when it should be on sales acquisition tactics or client acquisition tactics. As a result, they get leads, maybe lots of leads, but too few additional sales or new clients. In short, they got what they went for, leads, but they went for the wrong thing.

For those who don’t know, in almost every case, you will attract clients or customers massively faster without spending time or money on lead acquisition or advertising. Only after direct, faster, highly profitable options have been deployed would I ever consider lead generation.

What next?

When it comes to marketing your business, make it a habit to never assume anything. Check your sources. Ask relevant questions. If you do, you will dramatically increase your chances of finally getting the results you deserve.

Hard work isn’t enough (here’s what is)

By |

marketing, hardworking, momentum

One component of successful marketing, is knowing what needs to be done.

A second component of successful marketing, is to put that knowledge into action.

And an essential third component of successful marketing, is to keep on doing what’s required. Once things start moving, they need to keep on moving. Lasting success requires an ongoing effort. Continuous forward movement. 

Marketing momentum: the mover of mountains that’s easy to lose

Marketing momentum is where your intelligent activity (doing the right things, correctly) combines, to attract the results you want. For example, an increasing number of; sales leads, sales conversions, client enquiries, new clients, proposal requests, bid requests, client referrals, new subscribers, media requests… exciting times for sure. 

Here’s the reason I’m sharing this with you: once you’ve created marketing momentum, that momentum must be maintained and sustained.

  • You need to keep actioning your ideas.
  • You need to carry on looking for great opportunities.
  • You need to turn up again and again and again.
  • You need to consistently review and increase your targets or goals, as old ones are achieved.
  • You need to remain dedicated to improving how your business operates.
  • You need to keep working your plans.
  • You need to carry on delighting your clients.
  • You need to stay on the lookout for people who can improve your business.
  • You need to repeatedly make big, exciting promises and then deliver.

Doing all of the above is easy at the start, especially if you have an existential need for more clients or more customers.

But when all the important marketing numbers are moving in the right direction and things are going great, finding the motivation to keep your marketing momentum moving forward can become harder. And momentum soon fizzles out when left unattended.

This is something I work on regularly with new clients. Interestingly, very few ever think it will be a problem for them. This is largely because when people hire me, they do so when they’re looking for fast, massive increases in sales and financial results. They’re in the ideal mindset for creating momentum.

But.

As things start to improve, with exciting results moving all their important numbers in the right direction, almost every client I’ve ever had unconsciously thinks they’ve now arrived. That this new level of success is a destination. Irreversible, so long as they work hard. 

They forget they were already working hard before hiring me… and hard work didn’t produce the results they wanted.

Hard work by itself is not enough for ongoing success. So, ride the wave of momentum and keep moving forward.

Rapid, massive business growth: With MBRs

By |

marketing tip, MBR, Mutually beneficial relationships

This is massive.

I’d like to introduce you to one of the most powerful ideas in marketing. It’s an absolute marketing essential, known as mutually beneficial relationships or MBRs.

Here’s how it works, starting with a simple question.

Who already serves your prospective clients or customers, with a service or product that doesn’t conflict with your own?

This is why that question is worth so much to you. Those non-conflicting providers already have the attention and trust of your prospects. An introduction to your prospects, from one of those providers, someone they already trust, can make you a fortune.

Here’s how

MBRs are a cornerstone of success. The effectiveness of the strategy is behind the explosive growth of many of the world’s fastest growing businesses. In my own experience, many of my biggest commercial successes have come from MBRs. And some of these relationships have been producing high-profit income for well over a decade.

That’s because once you’ve built the relationships, they carry on working for you.

With one very important warning.

Mutually means mutually!

Mutually beneficial relationships need to be exactly that.. mutually beneficial. Failing to understand this and get the balance right is the only thing that can stop you. The relationship must benefit the other person in a rewarding way. Just like any relationship, for it to work both parties need to be valued. 

So, determine what you can offer these non-conflicting providers, which will motivate them to help you.

How do you get the motivation right?

You need to fully understand the risk you’re asking a potential partner to take. That person or company will be concerned that they risk damaging their relationship with their clients, if you fail to deliver. Remember, they don’t know you yet.

However, as long as the relationship you propose is beneficial enough for them, and you can convince them of your reputation, you’ll massively lower their perceived risk and increase the odds that they’ll want to proceed.

The potential for you and your business is huge.

How huge?

This huge!

  • When I help my clients build MBRs, I can usually find a couple of dozen industries that are non-conflicting with theirs, yet serve the same people or companies.
  • And each of these industries can have dozens, hundreds or thousands of potential, mutually beneficial partners.
  • And each of these partners can have dozens, hundreds or thousands of customers.

That’s thousands, times thousands of potential new customers, who are already feeling positive about buying from you. Just think about that for a moment. And let it sink in. Then, why not decide to build an MBR.

Decades of experience assures me that you’ll be very, very glad you did.

It’s the most valuable question in sales!

By |

closing the sale, closing, feedback

If you want to get really good answers, you need to ask really good questions. What I’m going to show you today is maybe the best question in sales. It’s a fantastic question you should ask when presenting to a prospective client or customer. A question that will help you massively increase your conversion rate.

Here it is. Just before you finish speaking with a new prospect, ask them the following.

“Are there any questions you would like me to have asked you?”

Usually, small business owners would ask the prospect if there’s anything else they’d like to know or if they have any questions. If the prospect was not particularly motivated to hire them or buy from them, they’ll usually just say ‘no’, as a way to wind the meeting down.

At that point, the small business owner would have lost the sale.

However, when you ask, “Are there any questions you would like me to have asked you?”, their focus shifts. And you open a door.

Prospects who were not particularly motivated to hire you or buy from you, will now use your question as an invitation to tell you what their issue is. This is especially the case if they were unhappy with something important to them, which you missed. As long as you provide a good enough answer, (which starts with you thanking them for such a great question), you’ll win that prospect over.

Obviously, this idea will work better with some prospects, some situations and in some industries, than others. 

But I have seen enough examples over the years, both personally and from clients and associates, to confirm it is extremely effective at turning a lost contract or sale into a done deal. Give it a try and see just how many additional sales you make.

Attract. Don’t sell

By |

attract marketing, marketing tips

It turns out that everybody in your marketplace has at least 2 things in common.

  1. They hate being sold to.
  2. They hate having problems.

Think about it, your business exists in order to solve a problem or a number of problems. Every business does. Therefore, business owners should be approaching prospective clients as a problem solver.

Not as an accountant, courier, retailer, IFA, designer, trainer or whatever. But as someone who can make the prospect’s life easier, less stressful, or both, by solving at least one problem for them.

This means talking to them, instead of pitching to them. It means focusing on their needs, so we get a clear understanding of their problems. Then, explaining how we can help them.

When your marketplace sees you as a source of answers, they’ll regard you as a useful asset. And that changes the whole dynamic of how you do business. You become a vastly more attractive proposition.

Why? Because we’re drawn to those who can help us. Those who can make things better for us. Those who can reduce our stress.

In short, doors that were closed to you when you were trying to sell stuff, will fly open when you approach them as a problem solver. And you’ll find people start hiring you or buying from you, without you having to sell anything.

How to make more sales, in uncertain times

By |

marketing, make more sales,

As I promised recently, here are some more ideas to help you and your business through the uncertainty of the current economy.

As things change, we need to adjust our marketing to the new wants and needs of our customers or clients. That’s what I’m focusing on today.

Plan with flexibility

Typical marketing plans run for a year and make the mistake of assuming conditions will remain roughly the same. As a result, these plans fall to pieces when faced with a period of rapid change. That’s why your marketing plan needs to have flexibility built in.

I recommend creating 90-day marketing plans, to run alongside your overall business plan. These need to be regularly reviewed and adjusted, based on real-time feedback. What’s working better than before? What are your prospects suddenly asking for? What’s no longer working as well as it used to? You get the idea.

Pay extra close attention to your customers

One of the best pieces of business advice I’ve ever received is this.

‘Your customers will show you where your market is going’.

Customers do this through their actions and their words. Here are some questions to ask yourself, so you can see where your market is going.

  • Have your customer enquiries changed recently?
  • Have your customers’ buying habits or preferences changed recently?
  • Are customers mentioning any new concerns during the sales process?
  • Is there a meaningful increase or fall in customer spending?
  • Have you noticed customers becoming more price-sensitive?
  • Are customers engaging with you differently online, perhaps interacting more through social media, direct messages, or emails?
  • Have your customers started recommending (or requesting) new products, services, or features you previously hadn’t considered?
  • Is there a noticeable increase in customers asking you for personalised or customised offerings?
  • Are there specific fears or uncertainties customers are expressing more often?
  • Have customer priorities recently changed?

Now ask yourself, are there new opportunities emerging, or new concerns emerging, which I need to take action on?

Focus on your new opportunities. Think positive

Rapidly changing conditions often cause stress or anxiety for small business owners. We need to be aware of this, and turn it around. A positive, proactive mindset helps us adapt quickly, confidently, and effectively. That’s exactly what we need right now.

So, focus on opportunities rather than obstacles.

Also, encourage yourself, and your team if you have one, to innovate. Innovating puts you in control. It immediately gives you a lift and causes you to think far more positively.

And remind yourself regularly of the challenges you’ve overcome in the past. You’ll overcome future challenges too, if you use the right approach. In fact, you may well come out of this wiser and wealthier than you were before. I saw this with 100% of my clients during the pandemic.

I hope you found this useful. If you did, share it with your friends.

From rags to riches?

By |

rags to riches, richard branson, self made, rags to riches story, 2025

This article gives you a behind the scenes look at those rags to riches stories we love. Plus, why they’re not always quite what they seem!

People love a good story. So much so, that facts are often changed in order to make the story more compelling.

Now, with some types of story, it’s unlikely to cause us any problems if the story we hear has been embellished. If that prince was a little less hunky in real life than in the story, it’s okay. Similarly, if the fish Bob caught wasn’t quite as big as he told us, that’s fine. But what if it’s a fact that Sir Richard Branson was actually born into a very, very rich and influential family?

Rags to riches… really?

Where we have a challenge, is when the stories we hear are intended to provide us with a business lesson, yet they have a key piece of information missing. Like the rags to riches stories, which contained no rags!

2 Types of business story

There are 2 types of story, which are commonly highlighted in business books, self improvement seminars and business blogs:

  1. The first kind of story is by far the most popular. It’s where we hear about the kid, who is born into poverty, yet goes from rags to riches. We love these stories, because many of us start off with nothing and aspire to make a success of our lives. As the son of penniless immigrants, I know I found these stories inspirational. They helped me believe anything was possible, even starting from zero.
  2. The second kind of story is also powerful and used as a warning. It’s the story of those wealthy business owners who self destruct.

However, there is a third type of story – a story which is seldom told, because it seems to lack the obvious impact of the other two.

Today, I’d like to salute a third group of people, whose stories don’t neatly fit into either of those 2 popular stereotypes. I’m talking about those who come from a super-wealthy or privileged background, but elect to use it as a springboard for something even greater.

Wealth to extreme wealth

Such is the demand for rags to riches stories that many riches to greater riches stories have been incorrectly retold, usually for the sake of emphasis.

I remember listening to the charismatic Easyjet founder, Stelios Haji-Ioannou being introduced on a radio program as ‘a poor kid who did good‘. Stelios politely interrupted the interviewer, to remind her that he was in fact, the son of an extremely wealthy shipping magnate. Stelios’ father gave him £30MILLION to start up his shipping business.

However, our desire to believe that hard working people like Stelios, must have come up the hard way, means these stories often mutate into one of rags to riches.

Sir Richard Branson is no rags to riches story. FAR from it!

Like Stelios, Sir Richard Branson’s success story is often referred to incorrectly, as rags to riches. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sir Richard was actually born into a wealthy, extremely influential family. He is the grandson of The Right Honourable Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson and the son of a leading UK barrister. Sir Richard’s story is one of wealth to extreme wealth. His achievements have been impressive, but we gain nothing in learning from his achievements, if we change the facts to make the story sound better.

Back in 2020, Sir Richard Branson’s family home was valued at over $5Million. Even that was a low, pandemic valuation. His parents bought the home in 1963 from a viscountess!

Sir Richard Branson childhood home
Sir Richard Branson’s childhood home

As we all know, many people born into that kind of wealth, choose to sit on their butt or self-destruct. Others spend their lives travelling the world spending their trust fund and then their inheritance, which is their prerogative. Few have done as Branson did (starting at age 16) and put their unearned assets to work for them, to grow multiple successful businesses, in many different industries worldwide. That should be a good enough story, without story tellers inventing a rags to riches beginning to the storyline.

Seth Godin is no rags to riches story

Seth Godin’s business career started with a superb business education at the best place possible. Seth’s late father, the highly-respected businessman William Godin, was the multi-millionaire owner of the largest business in its niche, in the whole USA. This saw Seth educated at the world famous Stanford Business School (see Stanford Graduate School for Business). For those who don’t know, Stanford is regarded by many as the finest business school in the world. Seth’s fellow Stanford students went on to become CEO’s of; Microsoft, eBay, Paypal, Trader Joe’s, Gap, Nike, Wells Fargo, Ford and countless other multinational corporations – plus at least 1 President of The United States. It’s a great place to get a world class business education and build a priceless network of super-influential, super-wealthy contacts.

Seth started his blog with a bang, thanks to super-influential contacts. For example, he wrote his first blog post, sitting next to Google’s co-founder, Sergey Brin – a fellow Stanford student. Seth’s story is regularly shared as one of rags to riches. The reality is very different, with Seth enjoying access to many of America’s most influential people and starting off with the support of his extremely wealthy family.

We learn nothing from incorrect information.

Podcasters, influencers, YouTubers, authors and trainers don’t need to pretend these inspirational people grew up in poverty, in order to make their journey an inspiration for us. The stories behind the success of people like Stelios, Sir Richard and Seth Godin, contain lessons we can learn from. My point, is that these stories do not need to be repackaged. They stand up as they are. There’s no need to pretend these inspirational people grew up in poverty, in order to make their journey an inspiration for us.

On a more serious note, by repackaging those stories, so they sound like rags to riches, the stories can become toxic. New entrepreneurs often find themselves stuck, wondering why they are not seeing the kind of results that their inspirational, rags to riches role models did; unaware that their role model may have started off with a world-class business education, the most influential contacts imaginable, the support of wealthy family and friends – or all of those assets. For instance, it’s easier to sell a company for millions, when you have contacts who have budgets worth millions, which they need to invest.

In short: Be careful measuring your progress against anyone, but especially people you do not know. Rags to riches stories are often not what they seem.

Working in. Working on

By |

work your plan, an image of an arrow pointing right, white on a blue background

I shared an idea recently with some entrepreneurs, which I think you may find useful. It’s a powerful, yet very simple difference in how the most successful business owners run their day.

I’ve also included a tip, which you can use to accelerate the growth of your business.

Let’s go!

It starts with an observation

When I speak with business owners who are frustrated with their progress, I find they spend a lot of time reacting. Specifically, reacting to the demands of their customers and colleagues. As such, they spend too little time developing their own business.

This scenario is most commonly expressed in that often-repeated business advice; You need to spend more time working on your business and less time working in your business.

Of course, every business owner needs to respond to the needs of their business. What I’ve discovered is that the most successful business owners respond differently from their average counterparts.

It looks like this.

The most successful business owners remain focussed on their plans. This means they do what’s required for their clients, colleagues etc., BUT they then refocus like a laser on their own plans. They plan their work, and work their plan. As a result, each day brings progress. Some days more than others. The key thing is they move their business forward every single day.

The average business owner also has a plan. However, they find their plans are often derailed by the demands of others. This means that although they start their day correctly, their plans go out the window. They work hard, but make little if any progress on their plans. Before they know it, a day of too little progress becomes a week of too little progress, a week becomes a month… repeat.

What’s the answer, Jim?

The short answer is that we need to plan our work and work our plan. It’s the second part that’s tricky. As I mentioned a moment ago, most business owners have a plan of some description.

The challenge is sticking with the plan, when the day-to-day needs of their business come along.

A valuable reminder

Here’s what worked for me, to ensure my focus always returned to my plan for the day. I set a reminder on my phone, which went off every 3-hours during the work day. When the alarm went off, a message would appear saying work your plan.

Did you notice how the previous paragraph is in the past tense?

That’s because after a couple of weeks, I didn’t need the alarm. I learned to automatically refocus on my plan for the day, as soon as I’d completed an off-plan activity. It’s hard to overstate what a huge, measurable improvement this can make for you and your business.

Give it a try.

Four questions that helped a subscriber boost sales by 68%

By |

building business contacts, better contacts

When I ask a business owner who their ideal customer or client is, they almost always reply with demographics; average age, location, income level, etc. 

Whilst demographics are certainly useful, they’re just a piece of the picture.

Demographics will tell you who to target with your marketing.

However, to get that demographic to buy from you, you need to know what matters to them. That’s their motivation. That’s what drives their decisions. That’s what drives their actions. That’s what determines whether they buy from you… or don’t.

Demographics alone can be problematic. There are wealthy people who spend the lowest possible price for a reliable product. They’d happily buy a £5 pen, but wouldn’t dream of buying a £500 pen. There are also those on low incomes who would take a loan out, just to own that £500 pen. Income level is only part of the picture.

I was inspired to share this with you, after learning that one of my newsletter readers increased her revenues by close to 70% last year, partly by focusing on 4 of the questions I shared in one of my newsletters. By honing in on the right things, she was able to improve her marketing, so that it spoke directly to what matters to her marketplace.

These are the 4 prospective customer questions that worked for her.

  • What improvement are prospects looking for, from my services or products?
  • What do they primarily place their security in?
  • Which do they value the most, quality they can rely on or low-prices.
  • What do they give most of their attention to commercially?

By talking with current and former customers, we can get a good idea of what matters most to our typical buyer. Often we don’t even need to ask! For example, if our customers tend to wear designer names, quality and style are more important to them than the lowest-priced/reliable alternatives. 

Through observation and conversation, we can get a clear picture of what our prospects are attracted to. That’s an essential part of attraction marketing; marketing that attracts sales and enquiries from our ideal customer. 

I hope you found that useful.