How to choose the right market

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Looking for the secret to success in business? Like most things in life, the secret is quite simple. The best precursor to success in business is being able to match your passion and your purpose with people who are willing to pay you for it.

To tip the odds in your favor, if you want to have an extraordinary business, you need to attract people who are looking for the service that ONLY YOU can provide to them.

This is why the very first steps I ask business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs to take when creating a new business or rejuvenating an old one are to think about their ideal workstyles, lifestyles, and clients. After that, we start to put the structure around what the business can look like – for example, types of products and services – and who the market will be.

Of course there are other factors, like packaging and pricing your products and services in a way that make you money – meaning, adequate profit. But before you can do that you need to decide what you’re selling and who you’re selling it to.

The most successful business owners can clearly identify their ideal clients and offer them a range of products and services. They also make it easy for their potential customers to see the results they will get by working together and give them simple choices that allow them to graduate to higher and higher levels of service.

Popular marketing theory advises that you choose a very specific group of people that you can market your services to. This is called your target market, or niche. Many business owners struggle with choosing one because they fear that they’ll miss out on potential sales, and that the wider the net is, the more they’ll catch. Other business owners like to think of themselves as “multi-preneurs” or entrepreneurs with multiple passions and multiple markets and so resist the need to choose one.

Either way, you need to pick a market. There’s simply no other way to be able to effectively market your services. To be able to attract those clients in a way that makes you the absolute clear choice above all others, you need to be able to stand out and connect with them.

The more you can put yourself in their places, feel their pleasure and pain, relate to what keeps them up at night and show that you deeply understand their needs, the clearer your message will be. And the more sales you’ll make!

Even if you are a multi-preneur, how you present yourself to your various markets needs to be distinct. For example if you own a travel agency, and you are also an interior decorator, you would have separate websites and marketing materials for each, focused on different audiences and containing the messages that apply to each of them. It wouldn’t make sense to your clients, and they could think you are less than serious, if you marketed yourself as a jack-of-all-trades.

To pick a niche, the best way to start is to brainstorm the problems you solve and the results you deliver through your product or service. Then begin to list all of the kinds of people who could benefit. Think about who they are, where they live, what they do, how much money they make, and the circumstances they are in that would lead them to wanting your service.

Then look at your own goals for your lifestyle, how you prefer to work, and your financial objectives. Seek patterns that fit, for example, connections or affinities you feel for certain potential markets. You’ll be able to narrow down your list even further.

Finally, look at where these people are, where and when they would be likely to look for someone like you, and how you would find them. This is really important, because for a market to be viable for you, a small business owner with limited marketing funds and time, you need to be sure that your ideal client is actively looking for your type of service or product, and that you can easily get your message out to them en masse in some way.

Here are some clues that you’re on to a good market:

• There is a trigger event that causes them to start looking for a solution.
• You can define what they’re looking for and relate it to the problems you solve.
• You can identify individuals but find places they gather – for example, professional associations, clubs, online forums, member associations, online communities.

Voila! You’re on your way. Now you can match your message and your marketing to the people who matter – your potential clients.

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.

Five Tips to Create Your Personal Brand

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Are you the brand?

When most of us quit jobs to start businesses, we often talk about our new companies as if they were bigger than they are. We use “we” instead of I, and we like to give the impression that there are other people in the business when most of the time, it’s a one person shop.

There may be valid reasons to do this, but I find that in most cases, the only reason behind the decision to position the business this way, is the fear of the business owner that he or she needs to appear bigger and better in order to seem credible and attract clients.

When we make decisions based on fear, and feel the need to window dress rather than be ourselves, we often miss the best opportunities to shine. Here’s why:

As a small business owner, your number one marketable asset is you. You are the business. You are the brand. You are the brainpower and the heart and soul of the company. You are the one building the client relationships, and caring and nurturing those clients so that they become repeat customers and raving fans.

Even if you have staff or team members, or you subcontract parts of the work to other businesses, you are the face of the company.

By contrast, in large companies and the corporate world, the face of the company is not one single individual. Millions are spent building corporate images, advertising and marketing, and serving customers. In many cases, these large companies do not appear to the consumer as being very human.  But their sheer size and investment keeps them in front of potential customers. So following their standards and trying to appear more “corporate” to be more credible, is a flawed approach from the start.

For small businesses, the single biggest source of new customers is usually word of mouth. People will come to you because they feel they know, like and trust you, or because someone they trust recommends you.

Your best forms of marketing are those that allow you to be personal, build relationships and connections with your potential customers, and those that are also realistic for your balance sheet.

Here are five ways to start building your personal brand:

1. Ditch the “we” talk unless you are delivering your services with others.
2. Tell a little about yourself in all of your marketing material and connections with your customers. Share the experiences that shape you. Choose anecdotes that would resonate with your audience and that connect with the theme of your services.
3. Design your services in such a way to reflect what you love to do, and are good at, as opposed to what you can make money at because you’re good at.
4. Have a signature topic or product that you want to become known for and market that relentlessly. Avoid the urge to be all things to all people, and be that one valuable and irreplaceable person.
5. Use your natural talents as your best forms of marketing your business. For example, if you enjoy writing, write articles to email to your clients, or publish in a local paper. If speaking is your thing, getting in front of more audiences is a surefire way to build authentic connections and gain exposure at the same time.

Following these tips will allow you to show off your most marketable asset, which is you.

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.

Social Networking Top 5 Tools for Business

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Harnessing the power of the internet allows you to reach more potential clients, find other business owners to collaborate with, and take advantage of the growing number of free and low cost technology tools that help you run your business better.

The internet has also opened up a world that simply did not exist for many small business owners, even five years ago. It’s a great time to be in business, and to use the internet as a medium to get your message out (and even to deliver your services, but that’s a topic for another day).

When I talk with new business owners, or people who are planning to leave corporate, about social media, they tell me they’re overwhelmed by the technology, and also afraid to unleash a monster they can’t control.

Most of us, myself included, are of an age that we remember the pre-World Wide Web era. We think of Facebook as a tool for our kids, not for us, and we want to protect our personal information. Or we think it’s non-productive time better spent on other things, like ‘real work.’

They’re wise to be cautious – but I assure them not to be afraid! There is much more to gain than there is to lose when it comes to using social media as a business tool. But before you jump on the social networking bandwagon, it’s really important to understand what you intend to accomplish.

So here’s what you need to know: your goal is to connect, not to sell.  Here’s a primer on the best ways to integrate social media tools into your business so that you can attract a steady stream of potential clients, which is the first step to making a sale. There are many more options, but these are the Top Five that I recommend you use as a key marketing strategy. And the best part, they’re all virtually free and doable without a computer science degree!

(A note to those of you who are still working in corporate – this is a great way to start. Using these tools will give you a credible platform and allow you to start building a stream before you quit your job.)

Top 5 Social Networking Tools for Business:

Number One: Your website as a blog. One of the best moves you can make is to create your website using a blogging platform. Blogs are really just websites that contain regular posts or articles – which can be really short, even audio or video. The key is that the software is designed in such a way that the search engines easily find content and catalogue it, so that when someone searches a phrase, your results show up. You don’t need to understand this to get it to work for you, so don’t bother getting bogged down in the details. The most popular tool for blogging sites right now is Wordpress, because it’s simple to use and has a range of other tools that complement it. You can create a Wordpress website in minutes, customize it so that it shows up as your domain name (without wordpress in the title), and the only cost is your time and your domain and hosting, and you can customize it literally with the click of a mouse. You can even make your new blog site look like a regular website, simply by deciding which pages you wish to make visible. Because Wordpress is the most popular choice, it’s also the one that has the most features to make it really easy for you to get more mileage. For example, if you have a LinkedIn account, you can choose a menu option that automatically adds your new articles from your website, to your profile on LinkedIn. You can also plug in videos from YouTube, photos from Flickr and all kinds of other useful features that you can use to highlight your business, like I have done on the home page of www.corporatefugitive.com.

When you create your site, you do need to spend some time thinking about what you want readers to do when they get there. It needs to provide at a glance, enough enticement about the benefits you offer, to get them to stick around for a while and to come back again.

The beauty of the blogging world is that you can comment on other sites, which always includes a link back to your site. It’s very worthwhile identifying the circles of influence in your industry, as well as figuring out where many of your ideal clients ‘hang out’. Sharing comments, or offering tips of value, on other sites will help you get your message out and begin to develop your own following. It also drives up your ranking in the search engines. But remember, this isn’t sales! Your purpose is to offer intelligent and helpful comment, not to swoop in and scoop up other peoples’ customers.

Number Two: Email marketing – The low hanging fruit in the internet business world is by far making sure that you have a way to capture the email addresses of your potential clients and followers when they visit your site. The best way to do this is to offer something of value to them, in exchange for providing their information. This is like getting a “free taste” of you, perhaps an article, a special report or audio interview, or something that lets them get to know more about you and helps them solve a problem or answer a question. Once you have their email addresses, you need to have a way to communicate with them on a consistent basis. There are many free or low cost services that do this (like Email Brain, ConstantContact, AWeber are a few). No matter what you choose, you need to follow anti-SPAM rules. This means you require their permission to send material to them, and that you give them an option of removing themselves from your mailing list. Don’t try to send mass mailings through your Outlook, and don’t send people marketing material they didn’t request. This will backfire on you quickly.

Having a consistent way to reach your list allows them to get to know, like and trust you over time, so that when they are ready to purchase your services, they think of you. Again, this is not sales! The purpose of your communication is to share your expertise and to provide useful information. You can mention upcoming promotions, but a good rule of thumb is to make sure that 75% of what you share is free and useful. You’ll get the return later.

Number Three: Facebook - Facebook is one of the most frequented sites in the world. Just having a profile on Facebook will get your name showing up on the front page of Google. It is also used mainly by university educated, higher income visitors, contrary to what you might think. Depending on your business and your comfort level, you can choose to share a lot or very little personal information about you. The settings allow you to control how much information you choose to be visible. You can add a box to allow people to sign up for your mailing list, and you can create a fan page that is visible even to people who aren’t on Facebook. You can create events, groups, and send messages to them. There are many applications. You can also join forums, and comment, just like you would on others’ blogs. But please, don’t try to create two separate accounts. This is against Facebook’s rules and could result in your account being terminated and you banned!

Facebook is by far the best social media tool to use to share news about your business (update your profile on exciting projects you’re working on, new services you’re adding, where you’re speaking, or others you recommend). It is also an excellent way to find sources of referrals. As people get to know you, they will recommend you to others. You can also find like-minded business owners who offer complimentary services, so that you can package your services together, refer business to each other or even subcontract projects.

Number Four: Linked In – Linked In is another leading tool, and is especially good for finding joint venture partners to work with, and to promote your business and your services. It includes event listings and many groups to join, where you are free to post your information. It allows you to seek and post recommendations or testimonials, and to make introductions and be introduced to others, because you can see who is connected to who. It’s less user friendly that the other tools, but worth learning and using. You will get the most out of it if you log in a few times a week to connect with others, or post in a forum.

It also works especially well for the ex-corporate audience, because it allows you to retain your connections from the past and if you choose, you can also post your employment history. This is really good to showcase your transferable skills, and to show that you’re not a fly-by-night, self-proclaimed expert on the internet.

Number Five: Twitter - Twitter is the most bizarre of the social media tools, but it is one of the fastest growing. It allows you to post a brief profile and then have other people follow you, to see your updates. You choose who you follow. Twitter is about building relationships – in 140 character short bursts. It takes some getting used to, but the advantages are great. Of all of the tools, this one is the most unforgiving in terms of sales etiquette. Sharing information of value, passing on other people’s information you found on Twitter (being sure to credit them) and introducing people to each other is really the value of Twitter. It is a whole other world, but, it is a world where most people monitor their own posts, meaning you can get access to and get to know people you would not otherwise reach, without gatekeepers. Use it as a tool to get feedback, get to know your target market’s concerns, find people to partner with, and also build your own following. There are tools you can use to manage your tweets, and even to post your updates simultaneously on the other sites.

Feeling like you can’t manage all of this? Well, luckily, the internet is also full of tools that help you do just that. Once you create the above free accounts, create two more: one on HootSuite, and one on Ping.fm. This will allow you to connect your accounts, so that you only need to post to HootSuite, to have your updates automatically delivered to the others. You can even schedule your posts, so that they repeat at different times of day to allow you to reach people across time zones.

Using these Top Five Social Media Tools in your marketing toolkit will generate traffic to your site, which will translate into clients for you.

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.

Beware of these clients – are you attracting them?

I can guarantee you, if you don’t take the time to figure out your market, your ideal clients, and your price, you will end up with clients like this. You will be providing five star resort service at budget prices (or filet at taco stand), and it will feel worse than any job you ever had. Because you will have created it, and you won’t know how to get out of it!

Watch this video – it drives this point home better than I can write it!

Top 5 Reasons Not to Try Something New

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Whether you’re deciding if you’re going to finally quit your job, or you’re already in business and you’ve been thinking about making some changes to your products or something else, you will need to make decisions.

It’s easy to do this when you’re feeling on top of the world, when you’re on a post-conference or training high, or when you’re floating in a pool lounge on a tropical vacation (how many ultimate life makeovers are planned there?).

It’s not so easy when you realize that making the decision isn’t enough, and following through on it is harder than you thought.

At about this time, your doubts start to outnumber your great ideas. You wonder if you were crazy. You question yourself, and you begin to come up with reasons why you should perhaps reconsider. Here are five:

1. I don’t know enough – Someone else knows more about it than I do. Who am I kidding? Everyone will be able to tell, and I’ll look like I don’t know what I’m doing. Maybe I should just stick with what I’m good at, and forget about it.
2. I’m not ready – Since I don’t know enough about it, I think I’ll wait awhile. Going ahead with something that I’m not sure I can do 110% could actually backfire on me. I’ll take the next several months (insert time) to learn more about it and do it then.
3. I’m not sure it will work – Well, I know that others do this, and have had success. But I’m not sure that it will work for me, or my kind of business. Isn’t it better to stick with a more conservative approach, especially if it’s worked for me so far? It if ain’t broke, why fix it?  Variation: I’ve tried it once and it didn’t work. I worked my butt off, it cost me a lot of money and time, and it didn’t pay off. I’ve learned my lesson.
4. I don’t have enough time – I have too much on my plate right now. I have to make a living and take care of me and my family. What’s the point in starting something if I don’t think I’ll be able to maintain it and devote the effort and time I need to make it a success? I think I better wait. It’s selfish of me to do otherwise.
5. It doesn’t feel right – I trust my instincts. Everything happens for a reason, and the reason I must be having these second thoughts is that I must be on the wrong path. The Universe is sending me a message to stop and revisit.

I can guarantee that you have had one or several of these thoughts yourself. I know this because we all have them, at one time or another.

Unfortunately the internet is full of “experts” who claim to be making tons of money doing very little. They’ll make you feel that buying their expensive programs are the only way to get ahead. They’ll sell you on the idea that you have to pay to play the game.

I attended one event where the expert told people that they were not true entrepreneurs if they were not willing to pay $16,000 to join her group program, because they must not really want it bad enough. If they had second thoughts, they should consider throwing in the towel because they’d never be successful.

As much as I admire this person for her business savvy and expertise in her area of specialty, and I think it’s smart to offer a higher ticket choice for those customers that want that, I couldn’t help but think that the harsh approach crossed the line of preying on people’s insecurities.

See, having them is not the real problem. Letting them stop you is. The fact is, if you’re leaving a job for a business, or you’ve done it already, you can expect this, and more than once. Starting a business does not come with a guarantee. Even once it’s rolling along, you will experience the discomfort of change every time you choose to try something new.

Often these thoughts are just our minds’ way of self protection, and are learned beliefs we’ve picked up along the way. A colleague of mine, Brenda Stanton calls this “collecting evidence”, meaning we start to look for the proof that, in this case, our new idea isn’t meant to be. I call this the Law of Rejection!

One thing I’ve learned, if you go looking, you’ll find it! So why not look instead for all of the reasons why you should stay on your path, and choose to succeed.

Sometimes the second thoughts actually help you, if you scrape the surface and find that there are flaws in your plan, or disconnects between your actions, and your end goal. But if you’ve got a solid foundation, they’re almost never good enough reasons to give up.

As you know, I’m a big advocate of putting in the time up front to explore what you want most passionately, finding ways to bring that passion to form in your service, and determine the best matches for you so that you can design, manage and market your business to attain that extraordinary life you’ve envisioned for yourself.

But although you will benefit from help along the way, and you can learn new skills and hire others when you need to, no one else can make these inner decisions other than you.  Be grateful for the discomfort, because it means you’re growing! Never stop!

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.