Success Quote: “Action speaks louder than…

“Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.”

Mark Twain

May 30, 2009 | Filed Under Quotes | Leave a Comment 

Entrepreneurship – Discover The Two Best Sources of Endless Waves Of Revenue

My client confessed this week. If he had it to start all over again right now, here is how he’d use his expertise to create immediate and endless income for himself.

Re-Position Yourself

Professionals are among the most resistant entrepreneurs you’ll find. They take their technical expertise, go out to ‘go it alone’ or build a small professional firm, and clog up the works by diving into the depths of their work.

Your value as a technical expert is only one aspect of your value to your clients. Of greater value than billing hours to solve some matter for them, you need to become the ‘manager’ who makes solutions happen.

That means shifting to being a business builder who steps in to refine the work being done by other resources.

Really.

Keep that in mind and don’t let yourself be pulled off course and into the depths of ‘doing the work.’

Re-Purpose Your Know How

Your magical opportunity is to take your technical know how and experience and find new outlets for it. It’s not about gaining new know how – it’s about taking your know how and re-shaping how it’s offered in as many ways as possible to hungry audiences who are waiting for it.

Here’s an example. A recognized economist is a frequent expert witness. That’s a highly paid use of his know how.

But wait, it gets even better. He’s created a series of free white papers he’s posted on his web site. And hes’ turned them into articles distributed through the internet. Not a revenue producer you say?

Well, it is. Because he has paying newsletter subscribers. They get his analyses of the impacts of each related case and of actions by the government, describing the potential effects on the very types of cases he’s used for. Instead of use one case at a time, he now has paying subscribers across the country paying for his insights as they work up their own cases.

His subscribers may come to him for expert testimony, this year or sometime in the future. Either way, he’s got a steady stream of revenue using his expertise in ways other than one-on-one problem solving one customer at a time.

May 29, 2009 | Filed Under Ideas, Marketing | Leave a Comment 

Success Quote: “A journey of a thousand miles…

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”

Lao Tzu

May 27, 2009 | Filed Under Quotes | Leave a Comment 

Small Business Management – How Do You Decide Who To Learn From In Business?

One of the most important questions you have to answer for yourself as you build your business is who you are going to listen to and learn from? This is particularly important now with the economic challenges demanding smart action at every step.]

I have found there are basically 3 types of teachers in business and only one type is always worth following:

Type 1 – Trainers who have been handed  information, a script and exercises to coach you through so that you get some experience with a hypothetical example. They have seldom faced the actual challenges you want to solve. I recommend my UAGOS filter here: “Use a grain of salt!”

Type 2 – Teachers who has succeeded at facing the business challenges you have in front of you and is no longer doing it. Use caution with this type. Be sure you check out testimonials from others they have worked with to be sure their know how is relevant for the results you are trying to achieve.

Type 3 – Teachers who mentor. These are folks who have been in your shoes and can provide practical, actionable input. For the issues they see you need solving, they can bring you others with the expertise you need, to short cut your needing to go fish among strangers for your solutions.

This is the kind of teacher with whom I spend my time and money. Great examples are experienced consultant who have run companies, and technical experts who have done the business building strategies I want to implement in my own business.

My recommendation: Learn from mentors and coaches who have done it, and who have a roster of examples of teaching it to others who created success with it as well.

This is why I created the Business Accelerator club to train you how to build your business further, faster and easier. The focus is on stabilizing your business by managing it with ease and growing it by leveraging your experience to create low cost highly profitable new streams of income. I’ve done it. I’m teaching it, and I continue to do it everyday.

May 26, 2009 | Filed Under Ideas | Leave a Comment 

Success Quote: “An optimist is a person who…

“An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere,
while the pessimist sees only the red stoplight. The truly wise
person is color-blind.”

Albert Schweitzer

May 24, 2009 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment 

Business Management Strategy – Discover 5 Keys For Your Business Success

“Linda, how can you say that there are 5 Keys to success in business? Isn’t that oversimplifying the issues?”

I am asked that question all the time and I love it. What I have discovered from building my own business, and consulting and coaching entrepreneurs and professionals over the years is this: There really are just 5 elements that determine business success!

How can I say that? Well, it all comes down to 5 points of focus: your market, your product or service, your marketing, your use of attention, and your ability to use others.

Let’s take a closer look at these five success factors:

Your Market – You’ve got know how and there is a market for it. Your first task is to check exactly what your prospective buyers want to pay for and adjust your know how to deliver exactly that. Once your relationships are in place you can propose other ‘add-on’ services and product. FIRST sell what the buyer wants to pay for.

Your Product or Service – The world is filled with people who share your ‘know how.’ The difference is in your ability to focus on the solution you are providing and it’s match to the need in the market place better and faster than they do.

Your Marketing – The messages you use needs to be in the language of the buyer. Beware being too clever and having them skip right past you.

Your Attention – The biggest stumbling block business owners put in front of themselves is responding to every interruption and distraction. Think you don’t? Try turning off your phone and email for 3 straight hours. Measure how much you get done!

Your Use of Others – I define leverage as getting the greatest return from time, attention, energy and resources. There are activities that only you can take care of for your business. Keep your attention on those and leverage the experience and intelligence of others to cover the rest.

Remember, the simpler you view each challenge, the easier the solution you’ll come up with. Keep your focus on these 5 keys and you’ll out pace your competition and have your customers singing your praises.

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May 23, 2009 | Filed Under Ideas, Productivity Tools, Time Management | Leave a Comment 

Success Quote: “A man can do only…

“A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day
he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.”

Albert Schweitzer

May 20, 2009 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment 

Small Business Advice – 5 Barriers to Building Your Business

When I’m coaching a new client who wants to grow their business, there are a few barriers that often come up. Here are 5 of the barriers I’ve noticed keep some people from building smooth streams of income.

Barrier 1: Fear of The Unfamiliar
This is the ultimate barrier for any entrepreneur or professional – Yes, I know you’re expert at a lot of things. Even so, the world is full of opportunities that are missed because it’s just not something you’ve heard of before. This is one of the key reasons to work with a coach or mentor – to get access to ideas and information you don’t already know, and get a gentle push towards taking a fresh look at the possibilities they see on your behalf.

Barrier 2: Fear of Looking Foolish
This is a normal reaction to stepping into new territory. After all how will we explain it to people we know? We’re in the trial stage with a new idea, and others will keep asking you “How’s it going?” The importance of finding accountability partners is that they DO understand what you’re trying to build so you don’t have to explain it. You can keep your attention on design, execution and evaluating what’s working.

Barrier 3: Fear of Failing
This is one you likely already know. Rather than focusing on lack of success, focus on taking tons of notes of ‘things that need to be solve.’ That will ensure your attention is empowering you taking action.

Barrier 4: Fear of Success
This one can be sneaky – many of my clients don’t hear all the inner chatter telling them their relationships will have to change if they create breakthroughs and success. There is no single solution to this. Reserve the information you share with long time friends and family members. Make sure you have plenty of other people around to applaud to so you stay on track.

Barrier 5: Fear of Focus
This fear of what it will be like to have smooth sailing and their end in sight is one of the key reasons people procrastinate taking action. They find it disorienting to see the world with calm focus so they let emails and interruptions own their time. It’s important to turn off those distractions and lean the practical steps that achieve your vision.

Accomplish it and you’ll have all the choices you want for the next goals to achieve.

May 20, 2009 | Filed Under Ideas | Leave a Comment 

Success Quote: “I have but one lamp …

“I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the
lamp of experience.”

Patrick Henry

May 18, 2009 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment 

Team Building for Small Businesses – Can Your Really Serve 100 Clients In 100 Days? (Yes, You Can!)

The most important asset in your business is the solution you provide to your customers. The second most important is the team you have created to deliver that solution reliably and repeatedly.

The fastest way to serve 100 customers in 100 days is by expanding your thinking beyond “I do it myself.”

Let me give you just three steps. I’m known for breaking things into simple, easy to follow steps – as doable as can be. So here are the steps that are foundations for long-term success.

3 steps to build a team that serves 100 clients with ease:

1. Hire for expertise – Your clients don’t want you be the only person who can answer their needs (that’s just adding risk to their own business). They also don’t want to be the training ground for junior talent.

I recommend you hire ‘the most you can’ rather than ‘the least you can get away with’ when you build out your team. That way you’ll have competence on board to accelerate service delivery, problem solving and adding new lines of service for your customers as your business grows.

2. Design systems that leverage that expertise – A mistake many business owners make is hanging on to their own ‘know how’ instead of turning it into systems. With new folks on board you’ll want to incorporate your experience and theirs into fresh systems. Those systems guarantee your entire team can provide comparable excellent results to all those customers.

3. Sell your team to your customers – Have you caught yourself saying “I’m the only one who really understands my client’s challenges?” If you hire beginners you’ll be right.

On the other hand, hire people who have been ‘elsewhere’ and you gain the ability to sell that expanded ‘know how’ to your client’s business.

Bonus Tip – Productivity is created when you step out of the do-er role and into the leader role. The sooner you build your team, the faster you can fill your client roster. 100 clients can be merely the start of your vision for your business.

May 17, 2009 | Filed Under Productivity Tools, Teams | Leave a Comment 

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