Every person has knowledge that other people will find valuable.
There will always be people who don’t know what YOU know about your industry, trade or line of work.
So, here are 5 different ways to use that knowledge buried deep inside your head, to help more people, to grow your client base and to grow your income.
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1. Create Written Content:
The first way, clients and others can learn from you or learn more about you is to read information that you’ve written. This means that you can create how-to solutions for your target audience through things like articles, blog posts, e-books, guides, transcripts and workbooks that they can simply read.
For Example: Let’s say someone is an avid bonsai tree enthusiast**. He can create an e-book or guide around some solution he provides to one or more of the pressing problems people have with growing or pruning their beloved bonsais. He can post the e-book online so people can download it and even choose if he wants to charge money for it OR offer it for free in exchange for someone’s email address.
2. Create Audio Content:
Your target audience might want to hear your information in an audio format. This can lead you to creating podcasts, audio CDs, audio programs, mp3 recordings, tele-classes or one-on-one calls.
For Example: Our bonsai enthusiast can take a few articles he has written on bonsais and create podcasts from it to put on iTunes. Or he can create a step by step “how-to” information guide that teaches his audience the steps, concepts or framework to grow and prune the perfect bonsai and sell it as an audio program.
3. Create Visual Content
Video is the buzz word these days as more and more people want to watch information on a computer or mobile device. So create videos, webinars, online programs or DVD home study courses.
For Example: Our bonsai guy can create a video of how he trims his bonsais and publish it on Youtube for people to watch. He can even create a series of videos with step by step instructions and sell it as a DVD program or online video course.
4. Create an Experience
Some clients might want to experience you and your information in person. So you can create live events like workshops, seminars, retreats, adventure trips, networking opportunities and even expos.
For Example: Our bonsai guy can arrange an expo where everybody showcases their beloved bonsais and then he can give them some tips and pointers during the expo to help them improve on their “bonsai” skills.
5. Create An Opportunity For Personal Service Or Mastery
A segment of your audience will always want to have more access to you and work with you in person. Or they’ll want to master the things you teach. For these clients you can create exclusive 1-on-1 service packages and programs, mastermind groups or private coaching and mentorship opportunities.
For Example: Our bonsai guy can create a mentoring program where he exclusively helps someone (or even a small group) to master the finer details of growing and trimming a bonsai. He can even deliver a trimming service for his clients and prune their bonsais for them.
Diversifying you knowledge into different modalities gives you multiple entry points for clients to know about you and to work with you. Someone might read an article and enter your client pipeline that way. Someone might see one of your videos on YouTube and as a result buy one of your video programs.
It also allows you to help more people. Because if someone cannot afford to work with you 1-on-1 or take part in one of your “mastery” services or programs, you can still help them in different ways through free and paid written, audio or video content or via providing an opportunity where they can personally experience what you do.
So here is what I want you to do today: Use the 5 different approaches explained above and think about how you can use your current knowledge in one or more ways to help more people, to grow your client base and to grow your income.
Caveat. You do not have to do all 5. Obviously that will be great and something to work towards. But, in the beginning, just start with one and gradually add other modalities over time.
Just think how this can extend your reach and your capability to help more people by allowing your ideas, your systems, your framework, your knowledge, your services transforms the lives of people you’ve never even met.
Let’s DO this!
To Your success
**PS: I just want to let you know that I’m not a bonsai enthusiast. In fact I know absolute nothing about bonsai trees. It just popped into my mind as an example when I was thinking about explaining the different ways to use your knowledge. So, if I could come up with some ideas to re-purpose knowledge on a topic that I don’t have any understanding about, just image what you can come up with on those topics that you are really knowledgeable about. 🙂
Image source: Victor Habbick / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
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There is a simple truth in business and marketing:
If you don’t stay in touch, people forget about you.
Your business card gets shuffled to the bottom of the desk drawer; your well-intended email gets deleted; your well-crafted introduction letter ends up in file 13. Yes, that’s right… the dustbin. Ouch.
And that great first impression you’ve made fades from their memory.
It’s the “out of sight – out of mind” phenomenon.
The sad thing is: it’s actually not their fault that prospects and clients forget about you. It is really your responsibility to stay in touch with them.
And we know that!
We know that in order to convert prospects into loyal clients and to have repeat work from existing and previous clients, we must stay in touch and build longer lasting relationships with them. We know we should follow-up. We know we should get in touch with people. We know we should STAY in touch.
But often lack of time or lack of confidence or even an overdeveloped fear of rejection prevents us from doing it.
So here are 7 ways to easily stay in touch with prospects and clients to ensure they keep thinking about you, your services and what you can do for them.
1. Use a regular e-zine / e-newsletter.
For any online business (and even an off-line brick and mortar business) a regular e-zine is one of the easiest and most effective ways to stay in touch with your clients and prospects. Use the e-zine to share some great content or helpful tips with your subscribers. It will help you solidify your position as a credible and knowledgeable person in your industry and help you build the know, like and trust factor – which is critical in a services based business.
2. Use social media
Social Media like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn makes connecting and staying in touch with prospects and clients so much easier these days. For example, create a Facebook page or Twitter Profile for your business and ask prospects to connect with you on these platforms as well. Then engaged with them regularly and share interesting titbits so they can get to know you and your business better. Also comment, share and engage in conversations on the profiles of current and previous clients. This shows that you are taking an interest in them even after they’re not paying clients anymore. Social media is just a fun, inexpensive and effective way to constantly stay in touch with prospects and clients.
3. Send the occasional “I thought of you” email
Send current and past clients an occasional email with a link and or an attachment of something you know they will find helpful. This can be an article you wrote or something you found on the internet. It can be a book you think they might enjoy or details of an event or speaker. Sending them valuable info even after they’ve worked with you shows you still understand their unique needs and keeps the relationship warm for possible follow up work.
4. Invite them to events you host or are part of
When you host an event or are participating as a speaker at an event (online or offline), you might receive a couple of complementary tickets when it is a paid event. Why not invite one or more of your best clients to attend the event with you. They will not only benefit from the content and networking opportunities, they’ll also hear you speak and experience your expertise in person.
5. Congratulate them on their birthday
Everybody loves it when people remember your birthday. So send your prospects, clients and previous clients a note on their birthday. It doesn’t really have to be a formal or handwritten card (although those always give a nice touch). It can just be a sincere email or even a comment on their Facebook page to let them know you are thinking about them. And if you have their phone number, call them.
6. Snail mail still works great
Snail-mail isn’t dead when it comes to staying in touch with clients and prospects. Well-crafted letters and cards can stand out from the mass of emails that everyone receives. A postal campaign that reaches out to people over a period of time can bring a lot of goodwill to your business. It shows you put some more effort into contacting them than sending out a mass email. It can also build your brand as well as relationships with your clients on a deeper level. One drawback however is that lengthy postal campaign can be pricey.
7. Pick up the phone
Give your clients and prospects a friendly, no-sales call and ask how they are. They’ll be blown away by this. A phone call can also be a great strategy to follow up with prospects when you do not hear anything from them after sending out an invitation to work with you. The truth is we are relying too much on the convenience of email these days, but countless opportunities are missed when we fail to talk to people. A simple phone conversation can lead to many new clients since it’s personal and it’s a lot easier to solve issues and answer questions when talking to someone than trying to do it via emails.
Incorporating some of the above suggestions on a regular basis will ensure prospects and clients think of YOU when they’re ready to move forward. If someone is thinking about you and your business there is a much bigger chance that they will do business with you. Vice versa, if they are not thinking of you there is NO chance they will do business with you.
Do you have a story of how staying in touch resulted into clients? We would love to hear it! Share it with us in the comment section below. It’s always great to hear from you!
If you are like me and many other entrepreneurs out there, we start our solo business for many different reasons, but in the end it really boils down to one or more of the following. We want to:
Have more freedom in our lifestyle – to do what we want, when we want to do it.
Enjoy what we do every day and not be bound by a mundane, tiresome 9-5 job that we really dislike.
Use our services and products to make a difference in the world.
Have more disposable income so we can actually do and buy the things we want.
The reality however is that it takes a lot of hard work, sweat and tears, and a truckload of dedication and perseverance to bring our business to a point where we can “have it all”.
Through the past 5 years I’ve worked non-stop at this process “to-have-it-all”. I’ve tested and tried many different strategies and tactics and here are the 6 pillars I’m currently building my business on. Since I’ve put these pillars in place, things dramatically changed for the better and it is bringing me step-by-step closer to “having-it-all”.
So today, I want to share these 6 pillars with you
1. Choose Your Audience
It all starts here. The golden rule in building a successful solo business through marketing & attracting clients is this: “If you try to appeal and market your services to anyone and everyone, you’ll end up appealing to no-one”.
Thus, the absolute first pillar of your successful business needs to be a clear knowledge and understanding of who you want to work with (your target audience). Because then, marketing and finding more clients become so much easier simply because you know where to start looking for clients and what to say to them.
2. Master Your Message
A problem that we as solo-preneurs often struggle with is this: People do not get what we can do for them, and it is often difficult for us to put it into words and to convey a marketing message in a clear and easy understandable way.
So the second pillar to create a massively successful solo business is to understand your target audience extremely well so that you can start mastering the message you send out to them and thus have a message that they can understand too. When your message resonates with the clients you want to work with it will inspire people to line up behind you, to support the things you do, and it will intrinsically motivate them to work with you or buy your products.
3. Consistently Reach More People via Your Marketing
Over the years I’ve realized that marketing is not a once-off event, and marketing is not something you do ONLY when you want to sell stuff. It is way more than that. Marketing (when done right) is about authentically communicating and connecting with people in many different ways and through many different platforms to first of all inform more and more people about what you do and the solutions you provide, and then to have them raise their hands willingly to follow you or work with you.
So the third pillar is about creating a continuous and diversified marketing road-map to reach more and more people with your message and attract them to become part of your community / tribe.
4. Build Your Tribe
I believe that in this day and age, if you do not have a client community, a tribe, a list or whatever you want to call it, it will be really hard to consistently grow your business to levels where you can have it all – more freedom, more impact in your world and more income.
So pillar 4 is to continuously build your list with people who are interested in what you offer and who want to know more. Building a community of raving fans and followers gives you instant and direct access to an ever growing “ideal” target audience every time you want to promote a particular product or service. It takes the “pain” out of getting new clients, because the people on your list already know you and are more likely to start working with you.
5. Build Relationships With Your Tribe
People buy from people they know, like and trust. It is therefore important to build authentic relationships with the people on your list so they can get to know you better, like you more and start to trust you. The easiest way to do that is to frequently stay in touch with your list and to be a valuable source of information to them.
With an effective staying-in-touch-strategy you create a connection and bond between you and your prospects where you progressively turn cold leads into warm leads and eventually prospects into paying clients.
6. Make a Difference in Their Lives and Become Prosperous Through Sales
To truly impact someone’s world and to make a real difference in their lives, people need to experience you and what you have to offer. E.g. they need to work with you personally or use your products. That’s the only way they’ll get the true value of what you offer. Thus you have to sell stuff! AND you have to ask people to work with you or to buy your products. Otherwise you won’t be able to grow a profitable, freedom based business where you can continue to do what you love.
Pillar 6 is therefor about having services / products that truly solve a problem for your audience and then regularly asking people to work with you so you can help them solve that problem. The funny thing is that in most cases, people will not pull out their wallets unless you ask them to – so be bold about it and start asking them. Luckily with the other pillars in place, this step becomes much easier since you’ve already established a relationship with the people you ask to work with you.
So, what I hope you took from this article is this: Building a massively successful solo business does not happen overnight (no matter what anybody tells you). But when you put the above 6 pillars in place, that process can be much quicker and you can be more successful than you’ve ever imagined.
Obviously there are a number of finer details needed to effectively put these pillars in place. So over the next few weeks I’ll discuss each of these pillars in more details. Be sure to check back again …. or even better: if you don’t want to miss any of the strategies,sign up hereto have them delivered to your inbox, and as a thank you from my side, you’ll receive a free gift that will help you go “from no clients to paying clients”.
To Your Success
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How often do you put yourself in a situation where you are stimulated mentally, challenged and encouraged to step it up in your business physically, and inspired emotionally to do things beyond your wildest dreams?
If I can be honest, it didn’t happen too often in my entrepreneurial life – until I found an opportunity that quickly lifted me up and moved me into higher gear.
I think I can speak for a number of solo entrepreneurs when I say that: when you start your business, you expect it would take a lot of hard work to get it up and running successfully. But what you don’t expect is that in the process you become lonely and even start to feel distant from your family, your friends and even your social life. The reason for this is that even though everyone you know might be supportive, it is difficult to talk to them about your business, simply because they do not fully understand exactly what you do. You then start to crave conversations with people who are on the same path as you – someone who understands your situation, the decisions that you have to make and the pressure you are under – just someone with whom you are able to talk about your business issues.
For me that “someone” came in the form of joining other like-minded entrepreneurs in a mastermind group. Apart from getting the mental stimulation and an influx of fresh, new ideas when talking to others about your business, you are also motivated and inspired to take action on those ideas. That creates growth in your business and takes you from where you are now, to where you want to be.
Here are three ways a mastermind group helped me to grow so much faster.
Harness the Power of “Access”
Over the course of my business, I realized that having access to the things you need to grow, is what changes your life and current business position. This includes having access to the right tools, roadmaps and shortcuts so you do not have to re-invent the wheel and spend endless time, effort and energy figuring things out on your own. Also, having access to a group of like-minded individuals for on-going support, encouragement and sharing best practices, is just priceless.
When I joined my first group, I thought I had quite an extended knowledge on running an online business in general. But it just blew my mind to hear about the innovative ideas from the other members as well. I was able to learn so much from the successes and mistakes of others. I received excellent advice on my own business challenges, and vice versa I felt that I was able to contribute to the group with my own experiences. Overall it was a huge confidence booster.
Masterminding gave me access to the combined thinking-power of a number of other individuals to receive the tools, shortcuts and support I need to progress faster in my business.
Start Thinking Bigger
To really achieve more in your business, you sometimes just have to get out of your own head, and your own way.
We limit ourselves with pitiful excuses why we cannot do something: “I’m not good enough. I’m not in business long enough. I don’t know enough. I can’t speak English well enough”. As well as fears of: “What will people think and say when I start doing xyz! I’ll deplete my finances when I do abc.” Etc. etc…
What I however found is that when you surround yourself with people in a mastermind group who are on the same journey as you, you suddenly realize that all those fears and excuses are just keeping you small, and that in fact: Anything is possible. So you allow yourself to start thinking bigger.
You experience first-hand how other people have already done what you wanted to do – and they are not smarter, more knowledgeable or better than you. They just bit the bullet and did it! This is so motivating, because then you know you can do it too! That realization is not only empowering, but it also provides the inspiration to step up and take big leaps to grow your business faster.
Be Accountable To Someone.
Accountability is something that we all could use more of in our businesses and our lives, right? As a solo-preneur it is easy to procrastinate and let things slide a little while longer, because there is no one who keeps you accountable to implement. Sure, you could set goals and then try to keep yourselves on track. But the moment you know that someone else also knows about your plans and will keep you on top of it, you experience a whole new level of motivation and desire to accomplish things.
This new level of accountability is a natural progression of being part of a mastermind group. Subconsciously, nobody want to be the person who don’t make progress or who has to inform the group that you didn’t take action on what you’ve said you wanted to do. So as a result, you take more action, get the solutions and implement things faster. And in the end, you are astonished about what you’ve actually achieved over a short period of time.
So, whether you are starting out or own a well-established business, surrounding yourself with a group of advancing entrepreneurs offers an incredible opportunity to grow your business faster. In my own business it proved to be absolutely priceless. Both for my personal and professional growth.
It can do the same for you..
To your Success
P.S. If you have experienced the power of masterminding in your business already, please share with us in the comments below what you got out of it.
And by the way, if you feel masterminding is right for you at this stage and you want a mental, physical and emotional injection in your business, have a look at the brand new Client Chemistry Mastermind Program starting on September 17th, 2013.It is a carefully designed mastermind / coaching program to help you go from where you are now, to where you want to be. Click here for more details.
Did you know there is power in association and that the people who you regularly hang out with have a huge influence on your attitude, your determination, your beliefs, your inspiration and the outcome of your success? They impact on how you think about things, how you act on things and on the decisions you make on a daily basis.
It’s true, and that’s why hanging out with the right people is important!
Jim Rohn said it best. He described the power of association in one sentence as:
“You’re the average of the five people you hang out with most”.
For solo-entrepreneurs, this can be a scary thing to comprehend, because in reality, who are the people we spend the majority of our time with?
Perhaps a spouse or other family members who do not really, fully understand what we do and what we try to achieve with our business?
Perhaps friends who have no real clue of the challenges of entrepreneurship and are subconsciously trying to convince us that having an online business is a complete waste of time?
Perhaps moms at our kids’ after-school activities?
Ourselves – alone at home doing our thing?
This is not a great list of powerful associations, right?
Tweetable
To raise the quality of your life and business, hang out with people who already are where you want to be.Click here to tweet
And the scary thing about it is that if we take Jim Rohn’s quote literally, it means that everything about you and your business will average out to be similar to those five people whom you are currently spending most of your time with!
So, is there room for improvement on your list of the top 5 people you hang out with most?
If I just look at my own life and business, then there will always be room for some improvement!
SO….to raise the quality of your life and your business, hang out with people who can inspire and motivate you! People who have been there and done that – who reached the place where you want to be. For example, if you want to become a better communicator, hang out with great communicators. If you want to be more positive, hang around with more positive and optimistic people. If you want to be a terrific entrepreneur, have a thriving business and make lots of money, spend time in the company of people who have mastered the art of entrepreneurship and are already killing it online.
This is why there is so much truth in the saying “birds of a feather flock together”. Just take for example a flock of birds migrating over continents during changing seasons. If one bird attempts that long distance migration on his own, he won’t make it. If he tries to join just any flock of birds flying by, he might not end up where he wants to be. It is only when he joins his own kind; birds heading into the direction he wants to go into, that he will eventually reach his end destination.
It’s the same with people. When you want to advance in your business, it is worthwhile to think about the power of association. Surround yourself with “people like you”. Key people who are either on the same path as you, or more successful than you.
So, here’s what I hope you take from this article: Hanging out and surrounding yourself with the right people is priceless and you can use this power of association to grow your business. Thus who you associate with is too important to be left to chance. Unfortunately, many solo-entrepreneurs never put it to work for themselves, because often their choice of who they hang out with is primarily driven by convenience or circumstances. But ultimately, you are in control and solely responsible for choosing who you associate with and who you spend your time with.
As a take-away assignment: look around and see who in your industry you want to spend more time with (online and offline). Who can you learn from? Whose business do you want to model your own business after? Then go out actively and start spending more time with them, learn from them and start working with them…
You Your Success!
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I believe one of the most productive ways to grow your business fast is through joining a mastermind group.
Although most people are familiar with things like coaching or even group coaching, masterminding and being part of a mastermind group is still a fairly new concept to many.
So What is Masterminding / A Mastermind Group?
The idea of masterminding has been around for over 100 years but I first learned about the mastermind concept a couple of years ago through reading Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich.
At its core, a mastermind group consists of anything between 2-50 individuals (but typically around 8-10 people) who meet on a regular basis. The group then combines the collective knowledge and experience of all these individuals with the core purpose to help each other succeed.
It is a place where you can surround yourself with people who you can learn from and who can help you build your business (and vice versa). Within these groups you can openly share obstacles and challenges in your business and then receive answers, feedback, support and encouragement from all the other members to help you move past these obstacles and challenges. It is also a perfect place to share and celebrate your successes – something that many solo-preneurs lack in their business – we often do not have people who understand and celebrate our business successes with us.
How Does a Mastermind Group Work?
The members of a mastermind meet regularly. This can be weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly, depending on the group structure and needs. These meeting can be over the telephone or in-person.
A mastermind group can consist of only peers meeting regularly (typically free) or the group can have a leader who provides more structure and guidance (typically paid). Both types of groups are beneficial.
In my experience however, groups that offer the most benefit are paid groups since they have a leader / coach who can provide deeper training that is applicable to everyone in the group. Paid groups also have a clear advantage in that the members tend to participate much more in order to benefit from their investment.
How Can Masterminding Grow Your Business Faster?
Masterminding helps to spark new ideas on how to grow your business faster. This business growth usually happens when you hear yourself “think out loud” by sharing about what you do and growth also happens by listening to others where they either show you the way or just share about what happens in their own businesses.
Therefore, participating in a mastermind often gives you immediate results, because you leave each session with more wisdom, having a better perspective on your own business, feeling supported and being motivated to take bigger risks.
Your group also keeps you accountable and focused. This is something that we all could use more of in our businesses and our lives. Although it’s true that you can set your own goals and then try to keep yourself on track to achieve them, your commitment and desire to implement stuff is taken to a whole new level when you know someone else is also going to keep you accountable.
This added accountability is often the key to implement things faster – to not procrastinate on doing things. And we all know that when you take action on your goals and implement things, you get results. And with every result you get, you move closer to what you want to achieve in the end. So the faster you implement, the faster you grow and for me, that is one of the biggest benefit of a mastermind group.
Whether you are starting a new business or own a well-established business, you can benefit from the stimulating input that mastermind groups have to offer. When you surround yourself with other like-minded people who support you to reach your bigger goals, it becomes one of THE fastest ways to grow personally, and to grow your business. The saying of “two heads are better than one,” really comes into play during masterminding as it becomes easier to find solutions to overcoming the obstacles keeping your business from moving forward.
So, tell us in the comment box below what your thoughts are about mastermind groups. Have you ever joined a group and how did that work for you?
Francis van Wyk is an experienced business and client attraction mentor who supports women solo-preneurs with planning and achieving business success online.
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To really achieve more in your business, you sometimes just have to get out of your own head, and your own way.
