Tag Archives for " Success "

0 How to Develop Entrepreneurial Thinking Skills and a Marketing Savvy Mindset

Today’s post is reprinted with permission from Adam Urbanski

Millionaire Marketing Mentor

 

This past weekend I received a disturbing message from a dear friend. His business wasn’t generating all the income he needed. He’s exhausted all savings, started depleting credit card reserves and badly needed money to pay this month’s mortgage... Ouch! I wish I knew sooner…

Whether it’s pride or just human nature that keeps professionals from asking for help sooner, it’s just plain silly to keep “toughing it out” when there are so many strategies for generating new business fast.

You see, there is really no shortage of new business, there is only a shortage of knowledge how to get this business.

So if you are one of those professional folks who could use a few hundred bucks to help out with this month’s mortgage, here are a few strategies to get your business buzzing with new customers or clients:

1. Get on the phone!

Pick up the phone and call everyone you know. Contact all clients, prospects, friends and family. Make sure they all know what you do, who you are looking for as a client, and how to “give you away.”

2. Get out and meet people!

Sitting in the office, shuffling paperwork and piddling around with emails will not take you far enough fast enough. You need to be talking to people who can buy your product or service. Set a goal of how many people you want to see in person every day and find ways to meet that goal!

3. Stop competing and start leveraging!

Instead of being mad at your competitors for stealing all your business, approach them and offer to help out. At times we all get projects that are too big, too small, or too “whatever” for us to take on.

Contact your competitors and ask if they would be willing to outsource their “too whatever” jobs to you – so that you can both make some dough. (Yeah, I know, it sounds like eating some humble pie – but hey, I think it beats living under a bridge 😉

4. Ask for referrals!

You should be doing this anyway. Have a conversation with all clients (past and current) and help them think of people they can introduce you to right away. Oh, and don’t forget – just because a prospect says “no”, it doesn’t mean he or she doesn’t know someone who would gladly say “yes”.

5. Crank up your follow-up!

Do you have a stack of cards from people who turned you down once before? Maybe it’s time to resurrect them. Reach out to your “old” prospects – even if you previously gave up on them. Give them a call, send them a postcard or an article, and give them a special reason to say “yes” now!

6. Forgive your ex-clients!

Frequently ex-clients realize they made a mistake by getting involved with another vendor – but they are too embarrassed to admit it. Give them a way to gracefully come back to you and many will do it.

7. Catch a COI!

Form an alliance with Centers of Influence who can introduce to a large number of prospects at once and give you instant credibility. Well thought out and carefully executed strategic alliances with COI can infuse your business with all the new sales you can handle.

8. Educate, educate, educate!

Regardless of what business you are in you can always find things your clients and prospects would appreciate learning from you. How-to tips, informative case studies, industry reports – those are all great tools that can easily attract prospects hungry for your “stuff.”

9. Start thinking strategically!

If you are having trouble attracting enough new business, the marketing tactics above should help you get things hopping, but to achieve a long-term sustainable success you’ll need to address your marketing on a strategic level.

Identify or re-evaluate your ideal target market, clearly describe the benefits your product or service provides, create a compelling marketing message, re-evaluate your business model and re-define your methods of delivering your product or service, etc., etc.

10. Stop getting and start giving!

When you are in the “how I can GET a client” mode, you are focused on you – and that doesn’t make you very attractive. Shift your thinking to “how I can GIVE clients more VALUE” and you’ll become an irresistible client magnet!

11. GET HELP!

When you are in the midst of a demanding situation you cannot always have the clarity needed to creating solutions. Collaborate with a successful associate, start your own board of advisors or a mastermind group, or hire a marketing mentor to pull you out of the quicksand. Remember, when time and money count – you can’t afford the expensive “trial and error” learning curve!

Oh, and one final thought – now that you are done reading – get busy implementing!

The Author, Adam Urbanski, The Marketing Mentor, helps Service Professionals and Small Business Owners attract more clients. http://www.themarketingmentors.com

• Do you worry that you don’t have what it takes to help tweens, teens and young adults achieve the success of their dreams?
• Are you frustrated because it seems like every time you try to communicate with your kids, it turns into an argument?
• Are you looking for new strategies and tools to empower your kids to take responsibility for their actions and for their future?

If you answered yes to any of these questions,

The Youth Empowerment Telesummit is meant for you!

 You can OWN this amazing content filled series The Youth Empowerment Telesummit.  The program will provide you with practical, easy to implement strategies to engage the tweens, teens and young adults in your life to improve communication, build trust, and empower them with life skills.

Own It Today!

 

4 Book Recommendation: Success is a Decision; Leaders Create the Life They Want to Live

I am so pleased to tell you about this fabulous book created by my friend, Dr. Linette Montae (formerly Linette Daniels) of EmpowerMoreYouth.org and her very talented daughter, Danette Nixon of EmpoweringYouthForSuccess.com.  Together they are known as The Youth Success Duo.

Success is a Decision; Leaders Create the Life They Want to Live was designed to help tweens and teens learn to think things through, make good decisions, set goals, develop problem solving skills and become self-empowered.  In other words, empower them to develop a success mindset.  If you know me at all, you know that I am about developing a positive mindset, an entrepreneur mindset in my case.  The success mindset is very important to an entrepreneur so this book is a natural for me to recommend.

This book isn’t for reading  – it’s food for thought.  There is a quote for each day of the year followed by two questions.  The first question on each page is “What does this quote mean to me?”  The question is followed by space to write a response.

The second question varies from page to page.  Here’s an example – the quote for July 13 is, “People with goals succeed because they know where they are going.” Earl Nightengale.

The two questions are “What does this quote mean to me?” and “What is the consequence if I don’t follow this quote?”

Other questions include “what am I committed to. . .” “how can I apply. . .” “what have I noticed. . .”

These are questions designed to make the reader think about what the quote means and how it might apply to them; how they can use the wisdom from the quote in their daily life.

These quotes were hand-picked from hundreds of quotes these two ladies read through.   Each one was deliberately chosen because it conveyed a great message, core value or life skill concept and is meant to provide young people with deep thoughts to ponder and figure out how they will benefit if they apply the message to their own life.

When reading through the book, I found myself answering the question so you might want to order two copies, one for the young person in your life and one for yourself.  You can purchase this book and learn about their other products in the store at their website, http://empoweringyouthforsuccess.com/store/.

6 Inspiration Sunday Part 2

So I just realized that I posted Sunday’s article on Saturday.  Well, it was Sunday in other places in the world already.  Anyway, I decided to use this mistake to catch up as I was a post behind schedule in the blog challenge.

Rather than write a new article, I’m going to go with another Sunday inspiration and that will put me back on track.

This one highlights the differences between successful and unsuccessful people in a way that makes sense in a basic way.

 

I want to apologize to the creator of this graphic.  I found it on Facebook and didn’t realize that it didn’t have a credit on the graphic and now I can’t find it again to see who created it.  Sorry.  I’ll be happy to provide the credit when I find it.

 

 

2 The Art of Business

Here’s something slightly different from me today and perhaps for the next few days: thoughts about business and entrepreneurship on a different level that I learned from my spiritual teacher years ago.

Business done well is an art.  The art of business is the ability to see the future and its needs.  The needs of the future present themselves as energy resources.  Energy resources can be in the form of natural energy or services, and products.  Energy resources can be physical or mental.  Examples of physical energy resources would include massage, yoga, a catered meal, or any service that provides something that is physical.

Mental energy resources are the basis and foundation of all business.  Literature is the form or language of mental energy resources.  All ideas are organized through forms of literature, which prepare the idea for verbal presentation.

It takes a creative mind to perceive the future from a business perspective.  Creativity is the ability to communicate and express ideas as complete images of thought.  In order to be a successful creative mind in expression on a business level, the ideas must be integrated and organized.  This means that the most successful creative business minds are advanced literary minds who have an organized understanding of the material world and its capabilities.

It is the spirit which is creative and gets in touch with ideas from being able to concentrate on thought frequencies to see the idea clearly, yet to materialize the idea there must be an understanding of the material world.  The material world is very crowded.  For this reason one must learn to avoid the crowded places in climbing to the top of the pyramid of the business world .

Does this post leave you confused or are you connecting to a deeper level of understanding?  Can you see the principles of the Law of Attraction in this post?

Are you climbing the business pyramid?  Do you have a clear picture of where you are in the different areas of your life and business?  It might be time for a reality check so you can “uncrowd” those areas of your life and business where you need to make changes.  If are subscribed to my blog, then you already have Julia Neiman’s 2 Step Reality Check to Discover and Overcome the Hurdles That Stand Between You and Your Dreams.  If you don’t have a copy of the Reality Check, simply enter your name and email in the box at the top right side of the page and it will be on it’s way to your inbox in seconds.

 

25 Tap Dance your Dream into Reality

Okay, I admit it, I watch Dancing With the Stars.  That’s where I got the idea for this blog post.

They featured a young man named Joshua Johnson, a 20-year old from Harlem, New York who is financing his future by tap dancing on the subway.  Joshua’s story is a real inspiration.  This is a young man who had a dream to be the first in his family to attend college.  He believed in his dream enough to put himself out there in the subways of New York using a skill he started to develop when he was 15 years old – tap dancing.

Joshua soon learned he could make money, enough money to pay his tuition.  He was determined, persistent, tenacious and committed to making this work.  He caught someone’s attention at the New York Times where he was featured in an article which caught the attention of someone at the Ellen Show who arranged for him to be a guest.  This guest spot on Ellen drew the attention of Dancing With the Stars which garnered Joshua a real performance on the dancing show supported by professional dances.

The following is an excerpt from the Huffington Post which reports this about Joshua:

The New York City native has been tap dancing on the subway to pay for his education at Penn State. And his talent has helped him raise the $6,000 he needs to pay for school each year.

On weekends, Johnson makes the trek from Pennsylvania to New York to perform in subway stations, where he says he can make about $200, The New York Times reports.

But in high school, a university education wasn’t always on the agenda.

“I didn’t really think college was an option for me; I was never really an ‘A’ student. But at the same time, I didn’t want to look back on life and say to myself, ‘I didn’t go, because I didn’t apply,'” Johnson said on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”

However, even with grants, loans and scholarships, Johnson still came up short on tuition, and he had to figure out a way to pay the difference.

“I didn’t have money, and I didn’t have resources, but what I did have was talent,”the student said on “Ellen.”

Although Johnson is determined to be the first college graduate in his family, he admits the journey hasn’t been easy.

“When I got [into Penn State], it was a challenge — and a challenge I took head on. I am still sticking to it until I graduate,” he told Campus Progress.

In addition to studying and subway dancing, Johnson also holds a part-time job at a clothing store. And although times are rough, he’s keeping his eyes on the future.

“I’m in this situation for now, just now, but I know I’m not going to be here for long,” Johnson told The New York Times.

Inspired by his story, Ellen DeGeneres aimed to fix the situation.

She invited Johnson to appear on her show and presented him with new tap shoes and a $35,000 check on behalf of Chegg, a student network.

You can see clips of Joshua’s appearance on the Ellen Show on YouTube.

The takeaway from Joshua’s story is that if your belief is stronger than your doubts, if your commitment to your dream is strong, you can accomplish anything your heart desires.

Are you committed to your dream that strongly?  Do you believe with all your heart that you can accomplish your goals?

You’ll never know if you don’t go for it.

30 Create a List of Five “Daily Musts”

There should never be a moment during your working time when you don’t know what to do.  To avoid this situation, here is a simple little technique.  Create a list of five things you must do every day.  The idea is that as long as you get these five items checked off, you have successfully moved closer to reaching your goals.

Interact with your current community (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc, return emails)

Prospect to find customers (both online and at events in your area)

Prospect to build your list (contact people to joint venture with)

Create content (blog, create freemiums, write an ebook or report)

Increase your expertise (study your passion and learn more about marketing)

What are your five daily musts?

8 The 7 C’s of Success

Today’s lesson in the Empowering Young Entrepreneurs Series comes from Brian Tracy, one of the world’s leading authorities on personal and business success.

Brian studied top achievers and peak performers for more than 35 years.  He concluded that these men and women are unique and have, in most cases, mastered what he calls the Seven C’s of Success.

Those seven C words are:

Clarity – Eighty percent of success comes from being clear on who you are, what you believe in and what you don’t.

Competence – You can’t climb to the next rung on the ladder until you are excellent at what you do now.

Constraints – Eighty percent of all obstacles to success come from within. Find out what is constraining you or your company and deal with it.

Concentration – The ability to focus on one thing single-mindedly and see it through until it’s done takes more character than anything else.

Creativity – Flood your life with ideas from many sources. Creativity needs to be exercised like a muscle, if you don’t use it you’ll lose it.

Courage – Most in demand and least in supply, courage is the willingness to do the things you know are right.

Continuous learning – Read, at the very least, one book a week on business to keep you miles ahead of the competition. Organize your time so you spend 30 minutes a day exploring e-mail, sending messages, going through websites, because like exercise, it’s the only way you can keep on top of technology. If you get away from it, you’ll lose your edge.

How many of these C words fit you?  How many do you still need to develop?

 

 

23 Become An Inspiring Leader

Can you explain to people WHY you do what you do? What moved you to start your business? What makes you get out of bed in the morning?

Author Simon Sinek describes what he calls the Golden Circle of Communication. According to Sinek, communicating the why first is communicating from the inside out and “people don’t buy what you do, they buy WHY you do it.”

He presents this key to becoming an inspiring leader in a Ted Talk which you should listen to, it’s brilliant.

Sinek explains that your best customers and clients buy from you or hire you because they believe what you believe. He reminds us that Martin Luther King didn’t give an “I have a plan speech,” he gave an “I have a dream speech” and within that speech he talked about what he believed.

People didn’t necessarily connect with Martin Luther King the man, they connected with what he believed because it was the same thing that they believed. He believed that people should be treated equally under the law and that was his why.

The why that drives me forward is that I believe that all teens and young adults should have the opportunity to have the life of their dreams regardless of their life experience or current circumstances, and in light of the current economic situation, I believe we need to help them find alternatives to jobs.

Why do you do what you do?

 

 

7 Action: The Key To Success

The word action has come up a lot in the past few days so I thought it would be a good idea to look at why action is the key to success.

Adam Urbanski said, “The difference between successful people and the wannabes is simple: successful people do what needs to be done when it needs to be done – regardless of how they feel about it at the moment. The wannabes just complain and come up with all kinds of BS how life should be easy and everything we want should just effortlessly appear for us! Sorry, that’s not the way it works! If you want something – go get it!”

Nothing in business or life gets done unless you take some action.

Most of us know or have at least heard of the law of attraction.  Some people imagine you can just think positively and things will come to you.  This isn’t true.   It’s fantasy.  The law of attraction is not wishful thinking, nor is it just positive thinking.  Making your dreams come true and attracting what you want requires you to put energy into making it happen – taking action.  This is called determination.  Determination is the combination of time, energy and actions.  Without determination nothing happens.

The universe will not give you what you want without you taking some action.  When your action is inspired by your desires and dreams, you are demonstrating that you really want what you say you desire.  This puts you in alignment with the law of attraction and you will begin to see what you want start to come to you.  Action is like searching for buried treasure; you know it is there to find and you are digging with determination to find it.

Actions that are uninspired are time wasters.  Time wasters don’t create an alignment with our dreams and desires which means we aren’t going to get what we say we want.  This form of action leaves you with the wannabes that Adam mentioned.

My spiritual teacher once said that waiting doesn’t mean sitting around waiting for something to happen, it means doing something toward making it happen until it does happen.  So what are you “waiting” for?

“You are never given a dream without the ability to make it come true.  That ability includes your willingness to do what it takes.” Marcia Wieder

 

4 Laying The Foundation For Success

Building a business is like building a house or other structure.  You start with the foundation and build up.  You have to even out the ground, lay out the outline of the bottom floor and pour the cement.  When you are done, you have the foundation.  Then you build the frame of the structure, put the roof on, install the plumbing and wiring, finish the walls then get to the smaller details until your house is complete.

The next step is to turn that house into a home.  You need to decide on paint color, furniture and the like.  Once everything is in place, you have successfully built a new home.

In business, evening out the ground is equivalent to deciding what business you will have and doing the research necessary to make informed decision.  Laying out the outline of your business consists of making decisions on the name, what your URL will be, or whether or not to have a website or other tools.

Next, setting up the systems for your business, the website, an autoresponder and other systems is pouring the cement for the foundation.

To frame your business requires determining your sales funnel; what will your products be?  What will you give away to attract people to your business?

Creating your products and having them ready to sell is putting the roof over your head and finishing the walls.

Now to turn your venture into a real business, you need to find customers/clients; you must build your list and create and work a marketing plan.

Finally, to make your business a home, you need to invite people over.  Once your customers/clients start visiting, you can call your business your home and it is time to have a housewarming party.

Welcome home.