Media Wisdom

This week’s 10 Tips for 10 Million Women over at re:invention highlighted the wisdom of a niche broadcaster in Pasadena, CA.  Letitia Wright is the owner and producer of a station that focuses on women business owners 25-55 years of age.

She has some interesting wisdom to share about gaining media exposure.  In particular I liked #9.

9. Market As Far As You Can Afford.
Look at your budget and if it isn’t large enough to reach everyone you want, pick a small section of your target market and try to capture them. If you want all the bald headed people in the county but only have the budget to market to one neighborhood – start there. Don’t buy a tiny ad (because it is all you can afford) and be upset because it didn’t bring generate new customers across the entire county.

No matter how large or small your business is all the tips are gems.

100 Keys to Solo Success – #17 Have Great Presentation Skills

Those of you who have heard me speak know about what I call the “4 Cornerstones for Solopreneurs”.  One of these cornerstones is your business skills and one skill that EVERY (and I do mean every) solo professional needs to develop is the ability to present.

Now the title “presentation skills” seems very boring and dry. Many people believe that presentation skills are only required when you are speaking with a large group and also believe that it has a lot to do with Powerpoint.  That is definitely not the case.  You present yourself, your ideas and your business every day.

I have presented proposals, ideas, information and myself for profit, for fun and for service in a variety of forums – from 1 person in a coffee shop to an audience of over 400 on new technology that could be used for telecommuting.  And each time it drew on and contributed to my presentation skills.

Taking time to develop your presentation skills is an investment in you and your business that will, over time, have a good ROI (return on investment) for your business.

Now you may not be looking at doing formal presentations to rooms of hundreds but you can definitely learn a lot from those who have made a living from presentations.  In a post today – Presentation Excellence – Tom Peters emphasises the importance of presentation skills and even provides a Powerpoint presentation of his own 56 Ways to make a high-impact presentation.

Now there are some people that have very particular views about Powerpoint presentations (Tom included) and many of you will have suffered (and almost falled alseep) at the hands of people who do the “Powerpoint as Tele-prompter” type presentation.  If you want to get the Seth Godin view on avoiding bad Powerpoint presentations here is a pdf of his mini e-book Really Bad Powerpoint
.

One of the options favoured by many solopreneurs that I have met is to learn, develop or practice presentations skills/public speaking via an organisation such as Toastmasters.  I have never been to Toastmasters myself – as I have had some fantastic mentors who taught me a great deal about good presentations – but I have heard and experienced the results of colleagues and clients who have used this organisation to improve their skills and their confidence.

So whether you read about good presentation skills, do a course, join a group or get personal instruction the key is to do it (use the J.F.D.I. strategy).  Presenting doesn’t have to be deadly bloody serious but it is important.

No Free Lunches Just Free Courses

Even though the Internet is populated with huge amounts of information, and much of that  is available at no cost if you hunt hard enough, small business owners can find it difficult to access free online courses that address the issues of setting up and managing various aspects of a new enterprise.

Until now ……

Thanks to BusinessWeek online there are now a range of online courses available.  These are actually lead by an instructor that you can ask questions of.  The courses range from technology to business topics and are sponsored by Microsoft (so you probably won’t see to much for the Mac Users).

Some of the courses include -

- Start Up Basics for the First Time Entrepreneur

- The Wireless Mobile Office

- Designing and Equipping Your Home Office

- Setting up a Wireless Home Network

Now is not the time for excuses about not enough time to do this type of learning, or not being technically adept.  It is time to stop looking that gift horse in the mouth (or the backside, depending on your attitude) and get on and ride the thing.

Thanks to the wonderful Kirsten Osolind at re:invention for the link.

Another Reason to Back Up

If you are like many computer users you are already anxious about viruses and identity theft.  Now there is a new reason for concern: Hackers have found a way to lock up the electronic documents on your computer and then demand $200 over the Internet to get them back.

If you are not backing up on a regular basis then maybe this is another reason to get that sorted.

news.yahoo.com | Read the full story»

Yes Virginia, you need to Sell!!

Yet again this week I have had a conversation with a solo professional who was wondering why the clients weren’t flooding in the door.  This is a recurring conversation.

For some solo professionals there is a distinct cycle to their business -  they go through ups and downs where they have either got all the clients they want or they don’t have any.

Now the reasons for this could be many and varied, but one of the things that I see over and over again that contributes to not having the clients is a solo professional’s aversion to selling.

“But I don’t want to appear pushy” is the common retort.  Who in the hell said that sales was pushy?  If your only worldview of sales is that it is pushy then you need to get out and experience good professional sales people.  You need to change how you see and feel about sales before you can ever do it for yourself.

Professional sales people will tell you that their role is to offer their company’s solution to a problem that the client is having.  It is all about solving problems, creating relationships and providing value.

Do you think that you can do that?

If not, then give it up now !  Because in order to have a successful business you MUST do some selling, or hire someone to do it for you.

No matter how good your business is, how unique, how beneficial your services are people won’t seek you out if they don’t know you exist. And they won’t do business with you if you can’t solve their problems.  And if you don’t know what their problems are then stop reading now and have a damn good think about what it is that you do and why people would want to do business with you!

If you believe that just by creating a business you will have people flooding through your doors, then get over yourself!  If you believe in the philosophy of “if you build it they will come” then the only business for you is movie reviewing.

Selling MUST happen in your business!  Selling is the process of understanding needs, making offers, gaining acceptance of that offer and delivering on it.  Without this process you will just have a range of nice products and services that no-one knows about.

I believe that there are 2 reasons why people don’t achieve things -

• they don’t know what to do, or
• they know what to do but they don’t do it.

If you don’t know about sales and selling then spend some time educating yourself – there are thousands of books, hundreds of courses and dozens of coaches/consultants who will educate you.

If you know what to do and aren’t doing it then it is time to take a long hard look in that mirror and answer for yourself “Do you really want to be in business?”  If so, you need to sell.  If you don’t want to sell, get out of the business or hire someone to do it for you.

HINT – in a solo business the owner and creator of the business will never be able to hire someone who has the same degree of enthusiasm as they have.  And enthusiasm is good for sales.

Hands up all the sales people reading this blog (yes that means you).  If you didn’t put your hand up then you need to stop putting your hand out.

So yes Virginia, you do need to sell!  It is not hard, it is not pushy, and it CAN be done.

What are you going to do this week to improve your sales?

The Best Advice All Week

I often have clients asking me about how to attract more clients.  And here is the best piece of advice I have heard on marketing/attracting all week …. no make that all month.

Be fearless (but wear a lifejacket.) – Seth Godin (this is a great post – you gotta read it)

In my book, fearless doesn’t mean being stupid, it means taking risks that won’t wipe you out (this from a woman who rides motorcycles and has been wiped out on one).

When I ask the women business owners I know what gets in the way of them achieving more there are a myriad of answers – at the end of the day it can generally always be brought back to fear.

When I was doing sales training at the large monopolistic telco here in Australia they taught me about a sales technique called the F.U.D factor – fear, uncertainty and doubt.  What they didn’t teach us, and I don’t think they knew, was that most small business owners were already experts at FUD factoring themselves (the fact that I was working with the corporate clients meant we had to do it for them ).

Now as you may know the FUD factor is known around here as Elmer.  And from here on in I am going to picture Elmer in a life-jacket and start throwing him in the deep end.

What are you going to do to be more fearless?

How Dangerous is Your Desk?

“A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world.” - John le Carre

Run away!  Run away! Get up and get out!

Don’t Just Use Your Time – Stick to Your Best Time

Following on from yesterday’s post – 100 Keys to Solo Success Key #16 Use Your Time – I have been thinking about the number of solo business owners that I know who not only don’t use their time well but are also allowing their time to be at the mercy of their clients demands.

How effective, focused and fully present can you be for a client if you are not working at your best.  We all have a time of the day when we are better at what we do and more productive.  And please don’t give me the “I can work at any time of the day” shtick.  Yeah, many people can work throughout the day and even late into the night but there will be a time where you will be more focused.  The reason to know is so you can give that most focused time to your most important projects – do you really want to give your most effective brain space to your admin? )

The other thing that I am noticing creeping from the corporate world into the world of solo professionals is the global workplace, the desire for an international presence and with it the demands of a 24 hour clock.

In a recent article in Worthwhile Magazine, Kate Yandoh questions the effect of the “International All Nighters”.  She refers to an AP Article that gives an ominous view of corporate life for some -

Silicon Valley workers grumble that communicating with colleagues overseas
requires midnight teleconferences, 6 a.m. video meetings and the annoying
“pling” of instant messages and twittering cell phones all night long. Although
many techies swapped social lives for 80-hour weeks during the ephemeral dot-com
boom, the 24-hour business cycle seems even more stressful than the caffeinated
’90s: Today’s long hours are less likely to result in windfall bonuses or stock
options, and there’s no end in sight.

“It’s definitely a case of work creep – everyone in this industry is working
harder right now because of e-mail, wireless access and globalization,” said
Christopher Lochhead, chief marketing officer of Mercury Interactive Inc., a
Mountain View-based consulting firm in 35 countries, including Israel, where
Sunday is a normal working day. “You can’t even get a rest on the weekend,”
Lochhead said from his cell phone in the Dallas airport after sales meetings in
Mexico. “The reality is that when you do business globally, somebody working for
you is always on the clock.”

As you wipe your forehead and think “That’s not me anymore.  I got off the corporate merry-go-round”, think about your vision for your business.  Where do you want it to go?  Do you have global aspirations?

I know that in the coaching industry many of my colleagues speak grandly of having a global practice, either now or someday.  This may provide clients from a broader pool and give you the impression that you have a larger market from which to attract clients – but step back and think about the implications ……..

Many of these coaches may want a global reach but also want to have a lifestyle that includes family, friends and other non-work activities.  They may want to be known across continents but have not fully explored what it takes to be “slightly famous” in their own town or city.

I am genuinely curious about why people grant a level of importance to international business, which reeks havoc with their life, their health, and their families, and yet treat the people within their own communities as some how less than important.

David St. Lawrence made an interesting observation on the linkage between enjoying life and granting importance to others -

Failing to respect others on a personal level creates negative publicity that
can poison an entire community against us. Failing to grant importance to others
in business relationships completely nullifies all of the work that we do in
trying to attract new business.

The decision about who’s time you want to work in is a personal one – I can make my decisions, and you need to make yours.

Personally the conference calls to other time zones in the middle of the night is not worth any amount of money and success for me.  I have been there and done that and personally it had a significant effects for me (being diagnosed with heart trouble when you are 32 is not fun and a sign that needs paying heed to).

What is the international lifestyle worth to you?

100 Keys to Solo Success – #16 Use your Time

“Where does the time go? ” this is the lament of many solo business Owners. The thing is we all have the same amount of time to use – 24 hours per day 168 hours per week . You have control over how you use your time even if you don’t feel that you do. You, me, Bill Gates, the Queen, the owner of the corner store and the homeless person on the park bench – we all have the same amount of time.

Trina Blum in a recent blog post mentioned an Australian woman who seems to be able to have enough time to be mother to 6 children, chief surgeon at a major metropolitan hospital, still exercises everyday and manages to fit in the role of Australian of the year – that woman is Fiona Wood.

As a solo professional one of the tools that will support you in making the best use of your time IS to have structure to your week and boundaries around your time – USE your time don’t let it just slip by.

I have put together a generic week chart that helps me keep my week focused, balanced and in touch with my most important focus points.  It provides me with both structure and flexibility.  Now the week doesn’t always go to plan but at least I have a plan – and if this plan is achieved 80% of the time then I am in front.

Curious as to what mine looks like?

Now I know you might say wow that’s a lot to fit in and ask where is the space time – but this formula suits me, my family, my lifestyle and my business quite well.  Your role now is to ask what will work for you.

Now you might be like Steve Pavlina and start the day quite early – I like his philosophy that your first hour each day is like your rudder (although I don’t know how frequently I could do the 5am).

Or you may be like someone else …. or maybe you are just like you.

No matter what you decide to do with your time my request is that you USE it – and use it consciously because this minute will not come your way again.

100 Keys to Solo Success – #15 Take Nothing For Granted

Not your knowledge.

Not your business.

Not your clients (definitely not your clients).

Not your information.

Not your technology.

Not your health.

Not your family.

Not yourself.

Not anything.

“Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for
granted.” – Aldous Huxley

What are you taking for granted and what are you going to do about it?

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