Break Free Tip! Look through a window

It’s really difficult to get perspective on your business when you are the business. But this is so important, especially when it comes to developing your marketing material, because you need to be able to talk to your potential customers from their vantage point, not yours. A great way to get perspective is to look through the window of your clients, instead of in the mirror. Ask them what they value about you, and even how they would introduce you to someone they thought may benefit from what you have to offer. If you don’t have clients yet, you can still do this – talk to past employers, business colleagues and even very good friends who understand the business you are planning to create. I guarantee that you’ll get an immensely valuable, very different message than the one you would come up with by yourself. To hear more tips, watch the video below.

Do you know why you’re marketing?

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When I meet a business owner for the first time, and I tell them what I do for a living, they almost always tell me that they know they need to market more. After asking a few questions, I usually find that they use the word “market” liberally as the catch all for advertising, sales and getting new clients.

The problem with this perspective is that marketing is not a catch all. Marketing is not something you vaguely do. There are many aspects of marketing, and there are numerous tools to use, and strategies to follow. But none of them matter much if you, the business owner, aren’t crystal clear on why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Unfortunately, many well-intentioned business owners get to the point that they need to “get their marketing done” and so begin to randomly create expensive websites, buy ads, participate in promotions, attend more networking events, perhaps sponsor something local, and the like. The more web savvy and adventurous may also start on the social media path and perhaps create a Facebook profile, start on Twitter and other current tools.

If I were to ask them why they chose those activities over others, the typical answers would be that they were following what others were doing, and that they really need to start marketing because their sales are down.

Both answers could not be more wrong although I truly understand the reasons behind them.

My approach may not be conventional, but here it is anyway. At the most basic level, marketing is simply about creating the opportunity to have conversations with the people who are interested in or have already bought your product and service. And here’s the other common misconception – it’s not about selling!

You have these discussions to get to know each other better, see if you’re both finding the relationship agreeable, and looking for ways to take your relationship further. When you’re happy with each other, you start to introduce each other to others in your circle. That doesn’t sound so complicated, does it?

Now think about the context of the relationship. Looking for a bridge partner, would require a much different approach than finding your true love. So if you go with a friend to a rock concert, but with the intention of meeting a bridge partner, your odds of success would be quite low.

When you look at your business from this perspective you can see how many of our decisions come from lack of clarity, both in what we are looking for, and how we go about it.

There are essential marketing activities that all businesses need to do proactively and consistently. If you aren’t doing at least something in each of these categories on a regular basis, I guarantee that you are either already losing money, or you are leaving yourself vulnerable.

• Finding and capturing leads – you need to have a way to find, and gather information on your potential customers.
• Following up with qualified prospects – once you have someone on your radar, you need to have a way to systematically follow up with them and keep the conversation going.
• Keeping your customers happy – this one’s obvious!
• Staying connected with potential, current and past customers – you need to be able to regularly get in front of your list of prospects and customers, so that they don’t forget about you, and that you are top of mind when they are ready to purchase the service you provide
• Making it easy for others to recommend you – word of mouth is critical for small business owners who simply can’t compete with the mass advertising that larger companies do. To do this, you need to make sure your network understands what you do, who you help and how to find you.
• Looking for other complimentary businesses to partner and collaborate with – one of the rock solid ways to build your business is to partner up with other businesses who already serve your ideal market of customers. If you can refer potential clients to each other, you have a win-win-win for all parties.

No matter what the marketing activity, it can usually fit into one of these categories. I challenge you to look at what you’re doing (or not doing) from this perspective. The view should be clearer from here.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:  Sherri Garrity is the Chief Corporate Fugitive and creator of the Five Keys Success System^TM for ex-corporate employees and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to break free from the confines of their corporate experience and  unlock their business potential for greater  personal freedom and prosperity. The Corporate Fugitive system demystifies the business of setting up, managing, marketing and growing a successful entrepreneurial adventure. Visit www.corporatefugitive.com for free tips on how to unlock the business in you.

Are you dipping or dead-ending?

If you’ve read Seth Godin’s book The Dip, you’ll get this reference immediately. You’ll understand why you need to know when to quit and when to stick.

It’s a fact that most business owners throw in the towel at the two year mark. They’ve decided to quit. Where the real challenge comes is knowing whether you are doing it for the right reasons – are you in the dip, or the dead end?

When you set out in your business, it’s overwhelming, but also exciting. Like any new adventure, it starts out fun, then becomes less so, until it can feel like a real chore. It’s normal to feel this at times. However there is a big difference between a temporary dip, when you start to feel like you want to give up, and a real dead end.

It’s hard to know the difference! But I believe you can take steps at the beginning that will help you stay the course. Next week I’ll be covering more about this topic and give you a chance to hear more in my free Break Free! Call on Wednesday, May 27.  Go here to find out more.

Break Free Tip: Like golf, business is a mental game

Business, like golf, is essentially a mental game. You can have the best equipment, the top instructors and even a million dollar caddy but if you lack the ability to focus, it’s impossible for you to win. Obsessing about the bad shot you just hit doesn’t usually allow you to follow up with a great one! Take a peek at the lesson I learned early on in my golf game. Business lessons from golf

Corporate Detox – Life on the “outside”

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Sometimes I think there should be a halfway house for ex-corporate employees to help you adjust to life “on the outside”.

When I started my first business after a 20-year career spent working for other people, the hardest change I had to make was in my own mind.

I remember alternating from feeling totally and intoxicatingly free to completely overwhelmed and panic-stricken.

As excited as I was, my first and last waking thought many days was “What have I done and what if this just doesn’t work?”

Let’s face it, there is just no preparing for a feeling you have never felt before.

My immersion into self-employment was sudden. I had thought about it for years, but I literally became “sick” from work and realized that something had to change.

Knowing what to expect when you quit a corporate job to start a businesses can help you get there with less sleepless nights and second thoughts, and more action and conviction.

So here are a few common signs of an aspiring entrepreneur in transition.

To feel unqualified – Valerie Young calls this The Imposter Syndrome. Despite all of your outward accomplishments, you may feel completely inept. Especially if you left a lucrative career behind, being an ex-employee but not yet a thriving entrepreneur can be very disconcerting. No one is going to proclaim you an expert, so you’ll have to claim your expert status yourself!

To feel like you don’t know yourself – When you are in that neutral, no-man’s land, you feel a loss of identity. This is very uncomfortable especially when our society focuses on occupation as a sign of social status. The best approach is to embrace your new status wholeheartedly. Introduce yourself with boldness and confidence, and don’t make conditional statements like “I’m just starting” or “I haven’t been in business that long.”

To feel unmotivated or paralyzed – When you go from a highly structured environment to the freedom and blank slate of working on your own, it can be disorienting. Many new entrepreneurs are unable to cope with a lack of routine and, combined with the detox of letting go of their employment, find themselves completely unmotivated. When this happens, you need to listen to your inner voice, be compassionate to yourself and take the time you need to recharge.

To feel like you’re running out of time – The flip side to feeling unmotivated, is feeling completely rushed. For some people, especially those who left high level corporate positions, the pressure to achieve and succeed quickly becomes almost an obsession. This can feel literally like a race against the clock.

To feel like you won’t measure up – Many business owners spend time focusing on what others are doing rather than on their own business. While monitoring the landscape is prudent, it does not substitute for making your own goals and plans. Many new entrepreneurs are quick to change courses just because someone else is.

If you’re experiencing these symptoms, take heart. Every leap begins with a step and all successful entrepreneurs began just as you are. The same drive that allowed you to make this big life decision can take you to your own thriving business.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:  Sherri Garrity is the Chief Corporate Fugitive and creator of the Five Keys Success System^TM for ex-corporate employees and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to break free from the confines of their corporate experience and  unlock their business potential for greater  personal freedom and prosperity. The Corporate Fugitive system demystifies the business of setting up, managing, marketing and growing a successful entrepreneurial adventure. Visit www.corporatefugitive.com for free tips on how to unlock the business in you.

Extraordinary is subjective – what is it for you?

For the tagline of my business, I chose Life Outside the Ordinary, because for me, it sums up the essence of what I am striving for in my own business as well as my clients’. There is nothing ordinary about quitting a job, turning your back on the expected, and starting a business.

There’s also nothing ordinary about creating a stand-out image and brand, setting up a business that is a custom fit and not “off the rack”, providing fabulous service and building a loyal following. This is what I know how to do, and I love doing it.

This double duty tagline is the foundation of what I believe – which is that you absolutely can create the business that allows you to do extraordinary work, make your clients’ wildly happy, and give you an extraordinary lifestyle.

So much of the small business hype on the internet is focused on making big money.  There is nothing wrong with making lots of money, but I know from talking to many small business owners, that they do not all identify with this.

We all have our own personal extraordinary. The point is, it’s up to you. For me, the ultimate extraordinary life means lots of free time, working with clients’ and other business owners on work that doesn’t feel like work, and having the financial freedom to make the choices that I want to make. What’s your definition?

Can you plan too much?

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When I chat with my mastermind friends, and other colleagues who own businesses, the most common topic that comes up is the amount of work we have to do. Not necessarily the volume of what has to be done (although that might be topic  #2), but the challenge of deciding what to do first.

People are often shocked when I tell them I have my main activities for developing and marketing my own business mapped out at least 6 months to a year ahead. They’re also perplexed when I talk about scheduling client projects for the summer. But how do you control that, they ask, when you’re in a service business?

Let me tell you – once you have a plan, it really is easy! Much easier, in fact, than having to make a million decisions on a daily basis.

Among the people who struggle with this, I find there are a few archetypes that summarize how they approach planning in their business.

The Starter – the person who always has a great new idea, and jumps in quickly to try the latest thing, but never seems to get anywhere.

The Plodder – the person who keeps putting one foot in front of the other, but never looks up!

The  Finisher – the person who only tackles one project at a time, and doesn’t start anything else until the first one is done.

You can already guess that none of these approaches work very effectively. In all cases, these business owners may be busy, but they will not be able to get the ultimate benefit  of planning, which is really just making sure you’re on the right track to get where you want to be, and that you’re checking out your progress frequently enough that you can change course if you need to.

If you don’t have a plan, or at least, have gone through the “Great Plan In Your Mind”, I can pretty much guarantee that you are wasting your time, throwing away money, and making bad decisions. The impact of these decisions could be incremental, like a drip from a leaky faucet, or huge, like a water main break, but either way, they are costing you. You’re probably not making the most of the existing opportunities you have either, because you are only looking at the next few days (or hours!) and not further out.

When you have a plan and a decent strategy behind you, at a glance, you can schedule important tasks for each week, have a more reasonable expectation of your business expenses and income, make informed decisions on participating in training or making a larger expenditure, and evaluating opportunities that come your way.

You can predict your busiest times and know when you will be able to slide in other projects, or even launch certain services to take you through traditionally slower times. You can seek the kinds of projects that fit the timing. For example, in the summer months in my consulting work, I look for and schedule work that doesn’t involve outside meetings because my daughter is home for summer vacation. This allows me to keep making money, but on a completely open schedule over the summer months.

Many business owners think they either don’t have time to plan, or don’t know how. And people who are just new in business think they can’t because they don’t have any experience in their business yet. This is not true!

Whether your plan is on a napkin, in an excel spreadsheet, or in your head, you should be able to answer these basic questions:

• Do I know what is different about my business that people find valuable?
• Do I know exactly what I am selling, and who I am selling it to?
• Do I know the best ways to reach these people?
• Do I have ways to connect and build credibility with them, without selling to them?
• Do I know the main activities I am going to do regularly to reach these people, as well as attract new potential customers?
• Do I have a way to follow up with clients when the work is done?
• Have I set aside enough time each week to work on developing these activities, and taking care of business?
• Do I have a way to measure how I’m doing?
• Do I know where I want to be at the end of the year? Next year?

These are just some of the questions that I would ask you, if we were sitting down together talking about this. Planning isn’t about having the perfect plan, it’s about the process, and it’s about doing it! I encourage you to spend some time thinking about these questions.

Once you know the answers, it becomes less daunting to take out a calendar, make some choices about your key marketing and managing activities, and start scheduling out what you have to do and when.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:  Sherri Garrity is the Chief Corporate Fugitive and creator of the Five Keys Success System^TM for ex-corporate employees and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to break free from the confines of their corporate experience and  unlock their business potential for greater  personal freedom and prosperity. The Corporate Fugitive system demystifies the business of setting up, managing, marketing and growing a successful entrepreneurial adventure. Visit www.corporatefugitive.com for free tips on how to unlock the business in you.

You can do it, you just don’t know it yet!

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This morning I celebrated a personal milestone. You see, although I am a fairly active person and like to golf, take dance class, and ride my bike I have never been “into” sports.

So you can imagine my family and friends’ surprise when I signed up to run at 5:30 a.m. a few times a week.

Today was the first day, and when I arrived I immediately sized up the other women in the group. I knew that a few of them were seasoned distance runners, from their conversation with the leader. About a third said they run regularly, for exercise, and the rest were like me, totally inexperienced and probably feeling a little unsure.

We started with a one kilometer run just to “warm up” followed by another four kilometers. I completed three and had to walk a portion of it.

All I was thinking was I didn’t want to finish last! When my shins started to feel like they were on fire, I was tempted to quit. Thoughts of “what were you thinking” came to mind. It would have been very easy to deke off the trail and drop in at my friend Wendy’s house.

But I didn’t, and instead of feeling like a loser, now I am celebrating the good feeling that I accomplished the first steps in what will be a longer and sometimes painful process. I was the last to finish, but not by much, and instead of feeling self conscious and comparing myself to those that did better than me, I crossed the end of the trail with a big smile for showing up and not quitting.

Originally, I was going to send out a different article today. But this experience got me thinking about how much our mindset and prior conditioning shows up when we are challenged, feeling less than competent, and getting out of our comfort zone.

Quitting a job and starting a business, and then growing and advancing it takes a lot of courage and determination.

We underestimate how much our self-labels and tendency to compare to others can undermine us.

Through coaching and working hard to improve my own skills, I realized that no one is born a wildly successful entrepreneur and that often feeling incompetent or uncomfortable is just a sign that you are encountering something you just haven’t learned how to do yet.

Separating the label, for example, “I’m not an athlete”, or “I’m not a marketing person”, from the act of learning a new skill, is a perspective that has really helped me.

In business there are many skills we need to learn and master. Not all of them will come easily. Here are five tips:

Recognize but don’t be identified by your limitations – We all have things we are good at, and things we are not. The more in tune you are with your own weak spots, the more you can work with them instead of against them.

Know you are not the only one -Everyone struggles, although our individual struggles are different. If you don’t participate in a networking or mastermind group, or other forum, consider getting involved. It’s amazing how lifted up you can feel when you know that others are going through challenges too.

Stretch yourself – Putting yourself in situations where you are a little uncomfortable is how you grow. Doing the same things, the same way, is not going to get you different results. You have to be willing to try new things.

Make yourself accountable in the way that works for you – If you know you are less strong and therefore less likely to work on a certain aspect of your business, find a way to make sure you do. This is the number one reason that people hire coaches and join mastermind groups. The aspect of public commitment and a shared promise to show up is a very effective way to hold yourself accountable. Others may find they need a different form of support like setting goals and rewarding themselves for completion.

Change your attitude – If you can accept challenge and approach learning with an “I just don’t know how to do this yet” attitude, you can see that nothing is insurmountable. Put yourself in a  position of power, rather than negatively labelling yourself. When you do something, focus on your achievement and celebrate ALL wins, no matter how seemingly small.

As for me, I am fairly sure I will not run a marathon, but I will succeed at my own goal. Coffee at 6:30 anyone?

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:  Sherri Garrity is the Chief Corporate Fugitive and creator of the Five Keys Success System^TM for ex-corporate employees and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to break free from the confines of their corporate experience and  unlock their business potential for greater  personal freedom and prosperity. The Corporate Fugitive system demystifies the business of setting up, managing, marketing and growing a successful entrepreneurial adventure. Visit www.corporatefugitive.com for free tips on how to unlock the business in you.