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Why Waste Your Time…

As entrepreneurs, we often have the “next shiny object syndrome”. You know, you see the next good idea, the next whiz bang thing that will make your business run more efficiently, the next technology doo-hickey that your friend in your networking group is using to bring in new customers. And off we go, adding it to our already busy schedules to implement. And the next thing you know-we are overwhelmed with the amount of things we try to keep going, or to keep up with bringing in new customers.

Don’t get me wrong-innovation and implementation is crucial to growing your business and playing a bigger game. But when was the last time you took a really hard look at all the things that are on your to do list through the lens of what things are really making you money in your business, and what things are just activities that you are hoping will bring in money? Many of us have things we’ve been doing in our business for quite some time that has never brought in a dime.

So, what are some of the things you are doing in your business that aren’t bringing in money?

Do you have packages or products that don’t make money for you?
Are you spending time in groups or associations that have never brought you a client?
Are you sending out e-mails or notices to potential clients that have never brought in money?
Do you have clients on your e-mail marketing list that haven’t opened an e-mail from you in over three years?
Have you been “chasing” a client for a while who probably isn’t even your ideal client?

I strongly urge you to take a look at all areas of your business and figure out what activities you should STOP doing that are taking your time and effort but aren’t bringing in clients and money.

Then look at the things that are working for you and figure out how you can do more of those kinds of things. What are the activities in your business that are bringing you the most clients and the most money? Because if you aren’t focused on the things that are bringing you money, and spending your precious time working on things that don’t bring you money-you will never be able to grow your business to the next level.

Here’s an exercise for you…

Take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle of it from top to bottom. On one side of the column label it Makes Me Money, on the other side write Does Not Make Me Money. Then take a look at your calendar for the last two weeks (or four if you want extra credit!) and look at what activities you’ve done every day and put them in the appropriate columns.

When you’ve looked over your activity for the past two weeks and sorted it into the two columns, take a look at your Does Not Make Me Money column. What activities in that column can you STOP doing? Which of these have never made you money and probably aren’t going to? Then look at the Makes Me Money column and figure out how you can create more of those things in your daily calendar so you can start bringing in a lot more money immediately!

5 Essential Steps to Sales Success

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“Sales is what you do for someone, not to someone”

Bob Proctor

Next to a fear of public speaking, I think the fear of sales runs a very close second. There is such a stigma around sales, the “pushy type”, the “aggressor” the “used-car salesperson”. None of us want to be described like that. But when you are in business for yourself, you must do a certain amount of sales in order for your business to be successful. You cannot just build your website and “hope they will come”.

I have found that people’s mindset around sales and most specifically, their experience around being sold to or selling is the biggest factor towards our fear. We’ve all had unfortunate experiences of being sold to, where the salesperson never focused on our needs, but just continued to describe all the features and talk about how much we will love it. Or we might remember our own botched sales call, where we were hung up on, thrown out of a store, or had someone yell expletives at us until we left.

But I look at sales very differently. If you offer a product or service that can help relieve someone of their “pain” (and I use this word very broadly), it is your DUTY to get out there in big way and talk about the benefits of your product or service. You could be helping lots of people, but if they don’t know about what you’re offering and how it can help them, you are doing those folks a huge injustice.

Sales is a numbers game, a better mousetrap by itself, doesn’t win sales. In other words, you might have the best product or service out there, but if you aren’t putting yourself out there in a big way, you will not increase your revenues. Here are five essential steps to help you create sales success in your business.

1-Networking-you must have a networking strategy. This means a plan for where you will spend your time networking and with whom you will be speaking. You want to be sure you are networking in places where your ideal clients hang out…not at events with your competition.

2-Consistently Contact Prospects-when you come home from your networking events, it’s important to have a system in place for following up with the prospects you met. Sending an e-mail or making a follow-up phone call the next day is crucial to begin developing a relationship with your prospect. Your sales success is directly linked to your prospecting activity. You must follow up, follow up, and follow up!

3-Asking Good Questions-Where is your customer’s “pain”? Be sure you are asking good open-ended questions, so you can get as much information as possible. A good way to start the question is by asking, “So, tell me about….” Asking a question starting with “tell me…” ensures you will get more information than if you asked a closed ended question, that garners a “yes” or “no” response. Develop a list of 25 questions your prospect hasn’t heard and that your competition isn’t asking.

4-Present Solutions/Benefits-so often people start talking about their features. Everything is “we can do this, we can do that”. Once you have heard ALL the pain from your prospect, only then can you start to offer solutions.

5-Ask For the Order! Logical-right, but did you know over 50% of all sales calls end withoutasking for the order? People are so afraid of rejection-that they go through the entire process and don’t ask for the order! You can’t help somebody, if you don’t give them the opportunity to buy your product or service.

Sales is mindset, if you are not clear on WHY you do what you do, and for whom, then that’s the very first place you need to begin. Get clear-figure out why you do what you do and who you do it for…

If you are clear about WHY you do what you do, how you help people through your product or service, then it is imperative that you talk to as many people as possible about what you do, and what you offer so you can be of service to many, many people in this world.

Dramatically Improve Your Business in Just Four Days

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I am often asked by clients, “how do you keep engaged with, and on top of, the plans and goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the year?” This is a great question, because for many of us, even with the best intentions, we tend to fall off, or stop focusing on our goals about the middle of March.

So what can we do?

I urge my clients to make four dates with themselves: One in mid-March, one in mid-June, one in mid-September and one in mid-December. These are dates with yourself that CANNOT be broken. You must treat them like they were a date in stone with your most important client! They are your four strategic planning days for your business. They can be a half day or a full day, however, I recommend nothing less than three hours.

This is the time you review your goals for the year and ask yourself, what’s working, what needs tweaking, what are my specific goals and action steps in the next three months. For example, in mid-March it would be the time to look at your first quarter earnings, goal attainment, what worked, what didn’t? Then an opportunity to look ahead at the 2^nd quarter (April, May, June) and develop the specific plans of actions you will be taking in the next three months to continue to move yourself towards your big goals.

As solopreneurs, it’s difficult if not nearly impossible to take ourselves 30,000 feet up and take a strategic look at our businesses. We’re too close to them and usually we’re smack dab in the middle of them. By scheduling these four dates this year, it offers us the opportunity to look strategically at our businesses and make sure we’re headed in the right direction!

So, I strongly urge you to make those four dates with yourself right now. Put them on your calendar, be true to them, show up for them and I guarantee you will see the results of your efforts in your year end results! Really, go ahead right now and schedule them!!!

Are Your Negative Beliefs Holding You Back?

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“Get out of your own way by changing the beliefs of how small you perceive yourself to be”
Fabienne Fredrickson

My eight year old son received a Lego set for Christmas that was intended for 10-13 year olds, so I knew it would be challenging for him. In fact, I wasn’t even sure he would start the project, having never followed the directions (which are really like books) that come with each set, rather just dumping them on the floor and making whatever he wanted!

So over the weekend, he decided to tackle the project, and by the second day was almost done putting it together and had promised his younger brother it would be completed by the time he got up from his nap. He so wanted to surprise his brother. But when he put the last pieces on, several of the pieces inside the structure came loose and the whole thing started to fall apart. He would repair it and something else would break. It was so frustrating for him and frustrating to watch!

Needless to say, his frustration level was so high at one point, he fell down on the floor in tears and cried, “Nothing EVER goes my way-EVER!” I tried to calmly explain that as frustrating as this situation was, it wasn’t true that nothing went his way, and if he continued to believe that statement, that was exactly what was going to come true. I asked him if he could take a deep breath, and say to himself, “I’m going to do whatever it takes to fix this and complete it today”.

He pulled himself up off the floor and with his mouth firmly set in determination, worked for over an HOUR putting his Lego set back together. And it did keep breaking again, over and over, but he worked and worked and finally got it. I was so proud of him!

So what are the beliefs that you are holding about yourself? You create your reality in every “I am (fill in the blank)”. How you see yourself on the inside dictates your outcomes because it dictates your actions and habits. “I am” beliefs define who you are. If you believe “nothing I do ever goes my way”, then that’s exactly what’s going to manifest.

ASSIGNMENT:

Take some time to think about what beliefs about yourself are holding you back?
Think about where those beliefs came from and ask yourself:
- Do they make sense?
- Is there a possibility they might be false?
- Can you challenge them?
Ask yourself, “How would your life change if you didn’t believe them anymore?”

What Opportunities Are Right Under Your Nose??

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“To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.”
Benjamin Franklin

Believe it or not, everyday we are presented with opportunities. Sometimes we choose to take advantage of them, and many times, we choose not to say yes to them…for a variety of reasons. “I don’t have the time”, “I don’t have the money”, “I don’t think it would ever work” and on and on.

This week, I was at a networking meeting with several other entrepreneurs and we were brainstorming about how each of us might increase our business in 2012. It was amazing thateach and every one of us had at least three current, real-live opportunities right before us that we were not taking advantage of. Several of the entrepreneurs didn’t even see the opportunity until it was pointed out by someone else!

So I challenge you:

What are the top 3 excuses you use to not say YES to the opportunities that show up in your life every day?

So, be honest with yourself. How badly do you want it? Isn’t it time to ditch the excuses and TAKE ACTION? What are the 3 OPPORTUNITIES that are under your nose that are waiting for you to take action on?

I challenge you to toss your excuses aside, and go for it-figure out how to make them happen for yourself or your business-RIGHT NOW!!

“We often miss opportunity because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work”
Thomas Edison

Stop Doing These 5 Things To Advance Your Goal

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To get what you want, stop doing what isn’t working…
Dennis Weaver

Too often when we talk about goals, or intentions, or New Year’s resolutions, we just add a lot of things to our “to do” list. It’s no wonder that so often we get off-track or overwhelmed with our “things to accomplish” lists…sometimes even our bucket lists feel overwhelming. I’m convinced it’s because people don’t take the time to look at what they might stop doing. This may partially be a cultural thing, that when we stop doing something-it’s a sign of failure, or that we’re giving up, or perhaps we can’t “handle everything”-which is supposed to be a badge of honor in our society.

But I really encourage you to take a look at what’s no longer working for you in your life or business and stop doing those things.

Here’s a list of 4 things I compiled that have made my list for this year. I actually left the 5th one blank for you to add your own!

1-Stop hanging around negative people, including negative clients. You know those people who take more energy from you than give you energy. You know who they are, and by distancing yourself from them, you can start to spend time with those people in your life with a positive outlook on things. Trust me, you’ll find much greater energy from them.

2-Stop complaining. And start focusing on what’s working in your life, and what your grateful for. Extreme gratitude brings more goodness into our lives. Complaining just brings more wrinkles to your face! Live life from an abundant versus a scarcity perspective.

3-Stop checking your mobile device every 10 seconds (or at least between the hours of 6 pm and 8 am). Spend the time you gain talking to your kids, your spouse, and your partner. Let your brain rest from all the information you’ve put into it all day. This constant obsession with your phone takes you out of the present moment, trust me; you really miss a lot along the way!

4-Stop worrying so much about what everyone else is achieving, your looks and what everyone else thinks of you. Really, none of it matters at all. What matters is what you are achieving what YOU want to achieve, that you feel good about how you look and what you think of yourself!

5-Stop __fill in the blank___ What’s the one thing you’d like to add to this list that you will stop doing in 2012?

I’d love to know what you add to the list! Feel free to drop me an e-mail atmandy@mandyschumaker.com and let me know!

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