How Not to Make Money in Your Business

You know the expression, one bird in the hand is worth two in the bush? As a child I couldn’t figure it out, and to be honest, now that I get it, I couldn’t disagree more!

When it comes to business, too many of us go for that one bird, because it’s within our grasp, we can see it, and we think there’s no need to look for others.

The thing is, for your business to be sustainable and to thrive, you need more than one bird. You most likely need more than one bush, too.

When I work with clients one-on-one or in a group, I encourage them to build a menu of carefully chosen products or services. Whether you call it having multiple streams of revenue, or giving your customers options, it amounts to the same thing: you’re not putting all of your eggs in one basket. You’re not focusing all of your energy on catching one bird.

This is especially important for new businesses or those in the early stages. Your business can only grow if you are doing a good job of marketing, have a clear market, and have enough clients! So having a limited choice to offer them, and leaving the rest up to chance is not a good plan.

Here are some examples of what NOT to do.

Have one service only, and offer it at an hourly rate.

Many business owners who offer professional services put out the open for business sign without really thinking of what choices they can offer. Instead they offer a single service at a single rate, usually hourly!

There are some big flaws to this approach, but for this article, I’ll stick to one. When you do this, you’re automatically limiting your revenue to whatever the maximum amount of clients you can accommodate is multiplied by how many hours you can work for them.

And, this assumes you have a full schedule of ongoing clients. Here’s the problem: you can’t guarantee those clients are going to stick with you, and you have no way to produce more income unless you clone yourself, hire someone to help you (that’s if you have set your rates high enough to accommodate having to pay someone else) or work more. But if you spend all of your time working, you aren’t marketing, so you’re not likely to get any more leads, and you’re not really running a business. You’ll soon feel like an employee again, and you probably won’t be making that much either.

Have a low priced service as your only service.

Many business owners, especially new ones, think they’ll be more competitive by keeping their price low. Or they underestimate their true expenses, and set their prices too low to be able to make a profit. Or they underestimate their value, for other reasons – not understanding the market, or not feeling they’re able to charge more. Another example is the aspiring online business owner who has visions of selling hundreds of $19.99 digital products like audios or ebooks. In 99% of these examples, it’s a recipe for failure, because it takes a massive amount of steady, fresh, qualified leads to turn into sales. If your business plan is based on quantity, you’d better be aware of the time and money it’s going to take you to keep attracting new clients.

Offer a service that has a short lifecycle.

Another variation on this is when a business is based on services that have a quick turnover, for example, a  coach or trainer who offers single sessions or short term arrangements. If you set up your business model like this, you need to have an ongoing pool of prospective new clients to generate continual revenue in your business. It’s a lot of work to get new customers, and if you have nothing else to offer them when you’re done, you need to get new ones. The same rule applies for product-based businesses.

So what’s the answer?

In all of the above examples, you can see that the only way to keep the cash flow moving is to keep the new business flowing in, and that it is going to take a lot more leads to get new customers than you may have thought.

Each and every business on this planet depends on continual and consistent marketing, and that’s a given. So it’s going to be a smarter plan to create a range of services that you can offer to your existing clients, while also bringing in new ones. Keep your structure of options clear and simple, so that it is really easy for someone to choose you to do business with. Have different price points, and durations of programs to appeal to new customers, as well as existing.

But remember that it’s better (and far easier) to attract and keep more birds in the bush, than it is to hold one in a death grip.

Want to use this article? You can as long as you include this footer: Sherri Garrity is the Chief Corporate Fugitive and creator of the Five Keys Success SystemTM for ex-corporate employees and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to break free from the confines of their corporate experience and live outside of the ordinary. The Corporate Fugitive system demystifies the business of setting up, managing, marketing and growing a successful and extraordinary business. Visit www.corporatefugitive.com for information and step-by-step resources to take you from overwhelmed employee to extraordinary entrepreneur.

Twelve Ways to Get More from Events

Attending conferences and workshops relevant to your business is one of the highest return activities you can spend time and money on, provided you approach it right. There is nothing like a live event and the decisive action statement of stepping away from your daily surroundings to put you in your growth zone.

Here are 12 strategies I use to make the most out of every event I attend.

1. Be strategic about the events you attend – In your corporate career, you most likely had a training and development plan that was developed by your supervisor. You might also have had events that you attended purely for marketing your employer and networking with others in your line of work. Being in your own business is no different, except that you are responsible for creating your own plan.  So, set your goals for the next year and make a plan. Look at what you need to learn, as well as the events that attract the kind of people that fit your target market. And remember, your target market isn’t just your clients! Connecting with other business owners who your services complement and can be valuable sources of referrals is just as important. Whichever way you approach it, put a dollar value on it to put it into perspective. Many business owners, especially in the start-up stage, talk themselves out of going to events like this because of cost. But spending $2,000 for example to meet contacts that lead to $20,000 in business over the next 12-18 months is a sound investment, don’t you agree? If you are strategic and you follow through, this isn’t an expense, it’s a down payment on future revenue.
2. Once you’ve committed, find out who’s going – Do your homework before you leave. Make a list of who you intend to meet. Today many events are posted on LinkedIn and Facebook, and it’s possible to see who else is planning to go.  If you don’t know who, then identify your criteria for the type of person you want to connect with. Are you looking for prospective clients? Seeking someone to partner with on a project? Looking for someone who has a valuable resource your clients need? Be definite and choosy too.
3. Start networking before you get there – Connect with the people on your list. Send them a message through Facebook or Twitter, or email. Try to line up a phone call. Note: this has an awesome side benefit if you tend to be shy; you’ll already know someone when you get to the event.
4. Put your best foot forward – Take a fresh look at your business cards, website and other marketing materials and see if they are current and represent you well. The people you meet are going to check it out, so it had better be up to date and professional. The same goes for the obvious personal stuff, like you r appearance. You don’t have to go out and buy a new wardrobe, but dress neatly and professionally.
5. Take material with you – You’ll need lots of business cards. Consider printing a special run with your photo on it. Especially when you attend large conferences, it’s hard to put a face to the name later. With the fast and inexpensive print services like Vista Print out there now, you can economically do a custom business card for special purposes like this. Make sure yours has your name, email, phone, website, and your social media links (your name on Twitter, Facebook etc.)
6. Use your travel time to catch up – You know all those audio downloads,  business articles and books you’ve been saving? Spend your travel time catching up. You can pick up a tiny MP3 player for next to nothing that plugs right into your computer USB port. Listening to audio programs is a great way to get into the training mindset and uses your travel time productively. If you have a laptop computer you can access all of that reading material too, just set some time aside before you leave to put it all in one place.
7. Keep your eye on the ball – You’ll be hearing a lot of concepts, and at a really good conference, there will be more than you can possibly handle at once. Make notes in the margins of your materials, or bring those little tab Post-Its (I love 3M) to mark the good ideas for later. Don’t discount them because you feel they’re unattainable, or beyond your level. Remember, you might not be there yet, but you’ll get there eventually.
8. Start an idea list - As ideas, even the crazy ones, pop up (and they will) write them down in ONE place. Capture them! Some of these off-the-top ideas end up being the best, you just might not see it yet.
9. Stay an extra couple of days – I make it a point to build in some solo time right after the event ends to absorb what I’ve learned and combine it with some rest and relaxation. Stay an extra night or two in the hotel, or move to somewhere else nearby. The cost is minuscule and the benefit is huge!
10. Make an action plan right away – It is amazing how many people invest hundreds or thousands of dollars in conferences, and immediately go back to business as usual on “Monday”. Don’t do this! Go back to your idea list and your bookmarks, and put your plan in play immediately. Decide what piece of learning or good idea you want to pursue, identify what you need to do and get it on your calendar and in process right away.
11. Have a follow up plan – You know all those people you met? Get in touch right away. Because the majority of people don’t do this, you’re automatically going to stand out. Write a follow up letter template before you go and have it ready to personalize when you get back. Or, delegate this to your virtual assistant if you have one. Make the letter more than a simple hello by having a call to action. For example, if it’s a potential client, invite them to join your mailing list, connect with you on Facebook, or schedule a free consultation (whatever is most pertinent for you right now). If it’s a potential joint venture partner, invite them to let you know how you can help them, and what you’ve got going on that might complement them. These are just examples, but you get the idea.
12. Protect your zone! – The worst thing that can happen is to feel the euphoria and positive energy of an event, and have it crash the minute you go back to your usual routine. This is why I recommend you define action steps to keep that momentum going, following up with people who you met and setting aside time on your schedule each week just for learning and connecting. Hold on to that possibility you glimpsed, and don’t let it go. Protect your time, and stay in that space. It’s where the magic happens.

Want to use this article? You can as long as you include this footer: 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  live outside of the ordinary. The Corporate Fugitive system demystifies the business of setting up, managing, marketing and growing a successful and extraordinary business. Visit www.corporatefugitive.com for information and step-by-step resources to take you from overwhelmed employee to extraordinary entrepreneur.

How much are you willing to invest in your business?

If this article title caught your attention, I bet you’re thinking this is going to be about money. We’ve all heard the advice to save six months’ salary before starting a business, not to use our own personal credit, et cetera (don’t feel bad if you did neither, most solo service-based entrepreneurs don’t).

This article talks about the other investment in your business, and it’s the ones that I think are more important to your long term success than anything else. I’m talking about how much you are willing to in-vest in your business.

How much do you believe in what you do? How much do you believe you’ll be successful? How much faith do you have to believe in the invisible?

The mind is your biggest success muscle, and using your ability to visualize and imagine is how you exercise it.

If you’re not convinced, or perhaps never thought that much about it before, take a look at the world of sports. There are millions invested in the psychology of winning. There are oodles of experiments and anecdotes that show mindset trumps all.

You might have heard about some of the studies that measured brain waves of athletes at rest, but visualizing their wins. Or the famous athlete who proved time and time again he had the physical ability to beat the record, but continued to psyche himself out when running the specific event the reining record holder dominated.

Have the courage to dig deep and pay attention to your thoughts and actions. When you say you “hope” your business will take off, do you mean you really don’t believe it will, or that you aren’t sure you will be able to? It might not be a harmless comment. Many business owners who say they want success, often fear it, or don’t secretly believe they deserve it or will attain it. In this case, the negative mindset can trump all as they subtly sabotage themselves.

A powerful mindset, paired up with a solid business plan is a two-step path to your extraordinary business.

Here are five ways to build and flex that muscle, and in-vest in your business:

• Hang out with entrepreneurs committed to in-vesting. Their energy will motivate and inspire you as your mind opens to what’s possible.
• Attend as many conferences and live events as you can. Making the decision to stretch is a momentous occasion and giving yourself permission to spend on this is transformational in itself (if you plan it right and do the follow up, you will come home bursting with new ideas, and will meet new clients as well).
• Participate in a mastermind group.
• Work with a coach one-on-one, or in a group program where you can learn together with other entrepreneurs.
• Set aside time each week to read, listen and absorb. Use downtime in the car, or double up when you’re running errands or exercising to listen to audios (I publish several short audio articles and always provide a download when I hold special teleseminar events).

All of these are ways you can invest in your business, by investing in yourself. If you commit to doing these kinds of activities consistently, your return will be higher, and faster, than you may have thought possible.

Want to use this article? You can as long as you include this footer: 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  live outside of the ordinary. The Corporate Fugitive system demystifies the business of setting up, managing, marketing and growing a successful and extraordinary business. Visit www.corporatefugitive.com for information and step-by-step resources to take you from overwhelmed employee to extraordinary entrepreneur.