It’s great to use with your mastermind groups, your private coaching/consulting clients, and for your own personal use.

You map out what you want to do during the week in big chunks of time, by category, making sure the high-priority items get on your schedule first. It helps you set priorities and creates more productivity in your days.

Make sure you include rest time, administrative time, and any other time that you often “squeeze in whenever it fits” instead of planning time for it. I include a “must never miss” one-hour lunch break every single day to relax and recharge for the afternoon.

See below for links to a blank Excel spreadsheet and PDF of the Perfect Week Template, so you can create your own.

In the future when you need to schedule something, you see how it fits into your “perfect” week instead of letting your schedule get away from you.

• Someone want a bit of your time? Check your Perfect Week to see when it’s appropriate to schedule it.
• Planning a big project? Look at your Perfect Week to figure out when to schedule it while still maintaining work/life balance and avoiding burnout.

Some people balk at the idea of structuring their days so completely. That’s okay — just as long as you’re clear on what you want to accomplish each week and you have a plan in place for getting it all done.

It’s important to have a plan for saying “no” to tasks and people that will divert you.  The Perfect Week keeps you focused on actions that achieve your goals.

For me, the structure is necessary; if I leave it up to “I’ll do whichever task I feel like doing in the moment,” I don’t get all my tasks done. There are simply too many shiny objects out there!

I created mine in an Excel spreadsheet, but you can use any word processor or a paper calendar to map out yours.

Here’s a blank copy of my Excel spreadsheet so you can try this exercise for yourself. If you don’t have Excel, you can still download the spreadsheet, then open it in the Google Sheets app (part of Google Drive).

Here’s a blank copy in PDF format if you prefer.

I hope you find it helpful…or at least eye-opening. Let me know what you think. Share this with your mastermind group or client in your next meeting! Feel free to share it with your colleagues or add it to a workshop. The more you help your clients manage their time and tasks, the faster they’ll move toward creating the life of their dreams.

The post Designing Your Perfect Week appeared first on Small Business Coaching and Consulting for the Self-Employed.

I asked people whether they preferred getting the full text of a article being sent via an email newsletter, or if they preferred a short summary plus a link to the blog post on a website.

I asked the same question 3 years ago — the results were amazingly different!

• Three years ago, 60% wanted full text and 40% wanted a summary and a link.
• TODAY 75% of people want the full text of the article in the email. 15% wanted the link and 10% said they wanted BOTH the full text plus a link.

Why? Why? Why the change?

People told me that it was simply more convenient — they could quickly scan the article for relevant pieces of information. If they found it helpful, they could flag the email to find it again (or move to to a “stuff to keep folder” in their Inbox).

Others said that they were primarily reading emails via their phone and were hesitant to click a link when they couldn’t know if it was legitimate or not.

On the PLUS side, many people told me they would read anything I sent them because they found it valuable. Thanks!!! It’s nice to get the feedback.

So, what does that mean for you as a business owner or marketer?

As marketers, we want our readers to click on a link so they’ll visit our website.

But if your readers aren’t willing to click on links, what is the point of email marketing these days?

It’s still the same as it always has been, but not as a driver of traffic to your site UNTIL you have an offer for your audience (where you have to give them a link).

Think of each individual email as a mini one-page website. If you change your perspective about email marketing, you still get the same benefits:

• Brand awareness – letting people know you exist, and encouraging them to share your article (via email) with their friends and colleagues
• Nurturing through valuable content – building rapport and trust with your readers by sharing information that’s of immediate value to them.
• Building your reputation – your content SHOWS that you know what you’re talking about! Plus you can let them know if you’re a guest speaker on a podcast or at a conference.
• Telling them about more free content – perhaps you have a video tutorial or a live webinar you want to share with them (with link to sign-up page). Or you have a related blog post on your site (and send them a link to that).
• Letting them know about upcoming offers – whatever you’re marketing, a service or a product, email marketing is one of the best ways to drive sales (with link to landing page, of course).

But — what about long articles?

Email service providers sometimes will reject a super long email as not being legitimate. And it can be hard to read and retain all that content in one sitting.

Yet an in-depth article about your topic can be immensely helpful to your audience. This “cornerstone content” is the backbone of your website.

In that case, tell your readers that it’s a long article, and that it’s full of juicy content, then give them the highlights and a link. If you explain why it’s a link rather than full text, they’ll understand.

The disadvantages of not sending them to your site

Search engine rankings look at how many visitors come to your site. So if you’re not sending visitors via email marketing, that could affect your rankings. But there are more options than email marketing to drive traffic, so you’ll have to adjust your marketing plan.

When people want to share your article on social media, it’s hard to do from an email. Explain to them that sharing your article will help your business and ASK for the favor of them clicking a link to share. People often want to help those they trust.

It’s a new world for email marketing — still powerful, but in a different way. I know it’s hard to keep up with the changing world, so when I discover something, I’ll let you know about it. Let me know if you found this information helpful, okay? I love to hear from you!

The post Survey Results: Full Text vs. Link in Email Newsletters appeared first on Small Business Coaching and Consulting for the Self-Employed.

Here are 16 tips to help you select a small business coach or consultant:

1. Start with their knowledge level. Small business coaching and consulting are skills, and it takes a lot of education and practice to master them. Because small business consulting and coaching are not regulated industries, anyone can call themselves a “coach,” whether they’ve been trained or not. By selecting someone who has attended and graduated from a recognized coaching school, and choosing someone with several years’ experience as a consultant, you have more assurance that they are skilled and knowledgeable. After all, part of what you’re paying for is the ability to pick their brains and learn from them.
2. Select someone who has experience, both as a consultant and as a small business owner. How long have they been a small business coach or consultant? How long have they been a small business owner? How many businesses have they owned in the past? How many clients have they worked with and in how many industries? Look for someone with a wide breadth of experience so you know they can handle your unique situation.
3. Know the size of your business and select a coach accordingly. Some small business coaches specialize in businesses with more than 100 employees, while others focus on coaching small, self-employed business owners and solo entrepreneurs with fewer than 5 employees. Read through their materials/website carefully to see which size businesses they work serve.
4. Choose a consultant who has both business skills as well as coaching/consulting skills. Coaching is all about getting unstuck, taking action, living to your highest potential, and managing your time — the inner mindset game of business ownership. Consulting is about brainstorming and receiving expert advice to create a solid business and marketing model, and implement a powerful action plan. As a small business owner, you know how important it is to have marketing skills, business strategy and planning skills, and good time management. If you need help in any specific business skill, make sure your coach is an expert in that area, so that he or she can not only coach you but can advise and teach you. Here’s more information on the difference between a coach and a consultant. You’ll want someone with both skill sets and a coach who knows when to use each skill given the circumstances.
5. Continuous learning: When a coach continues their own studies and sharpens their skills, you benefit in unique way — the coach adds that new skill or knowledge on top of their existing base and can extrapolate creative implementations of the new knowledge in ways a newbie can’t. Essentially, the coach can connect the dots between existing knowledge and new knowledge.
6. Check the testimonials: Are the coach’s other clients similar to you? Does the coach have experience working with business owners like you, in the industry you are in? (Note: Beware of unsigned testimonials. Look for the name of the client and the client’s company name.) Also, check on LinkedIn to see if the coach has testimonials/recommendations there.
7. Expert status: Does the small business coach speak, write and teach on business topics? Is he or she a known expert in their field? Is the coach an expert on business topics: marketing (both traditional and internet marketing), customer service, strategic planning, financial planning, etc.?
8. Additional offerings: In addition to private strategy sessions, does the coach offer other products or services, like books, online programs, mastermind groups, or live classes?
9. Free consultation: Does the coach offer a free initial consultation, so that you can get to know one another and see if there is a good fit between what you need and what your coach can offer?
10. Good fit: After your initial consultation, do you feel that it’s a good fit, personality-wise? You’re going to be spending a lot of time together, and it matters that you connect and can establish a good relationship. Do you feel positive after speaking with them, or dragged down? If you are an energetic person and the coach is quiet (or vice versa), is that a good match? Do you feel you can trust the coach and have a good rapport with him/her? Do they communicate clearly? Do you enjoy their company?
11. Who you’ll work with: Will you work directly with the main coach or consultant in the business, or is there a team of coaches who subcontract for the main coach? You want to know exactly who you’ll be working with. You don’t end up with a coach whom you’ve never spoken to and/or who you don’t know their skills, knowledge, and experience level — or if it’s a good fit, personality-wise. Ask the person you speak with, “Will I be working directly with you?”
12. Prompting insights: Does the small business coach ask you a lot of questions that give you “a-ha” moments of insight and growth? Part of a coach’s job is to help you understand yourself, what you want from your business, and where you may be sabotaging your own success.
13. Challenging: Does the coach challenge you to step up to your greatness, to be accountable for getting things done? Or does the coach let you get away with being less than you want to be?
14. Availability: Is the coach available to work with you, when you want and as often as you want? Some coaches only have daytime hours, while others only work evenings and weekends. Is the coach available via email between scheduled sessions?
15. Fees and programs: Does the coach discuss their fees with you clearly? Are you clear about what you’ll get for the price you’ll pay? Do their fees fit your budget?
16. What is included in the program: Some coaches offer private meetings, while others work in a group format where you share the time with several other business owners. Some include training classes or a mastermind group in addition to private sessions. If you’re interested in a group program, ask them, “How many people are in a group?” You want to be sure you won’t get lost in the crowd.

Choosing the right consultant or coach for you will lead to a productive and inspiring relationship. Take your time and do your homework, and you’ll certainly find the right coach for you.

The post How to Select a Small Business Coach or Consultant – 16 Point Checklist appeared first on Small Business Coaching and Consulting for the Self-Employed.

They’re afraid of:

• Not having enough — enough money, enough love, enough health, enough security, and enough freedom.
• Failure — or afraid of being “too successful” and the pressures it could bring.
• Missing out on all that life has to offer.
• Not reaching their potential.
• Rejection.
• Dying – and afraid of living, too.

No matter how confident you are, everyone experiences fear

You might be feeling the sensations of fear and have a conscious awareness of it.

But often it’s subconscious and your actions might show you that subconsciously fear is the culprit.

Take this small self-assessment. Are you:

• Procrastinating
• Going after the next, newest shiny object and putting your other plans/tasks aside
• Having a hard time making decisions
• Feeling stuck
• Feeling overwhelmed
• Allowing perfectionist tendencies to slow you down too much

What story is scaring you?

Jack Canfield says, “Figure out how you’re scaring yourself. Then acknowledge that you are creating your fear and you’ll start to triumph over it.”

Most fear is based on a future event, something that hasn’t happened yet — but could (in theory). We picture this future event and frighten ourselves, much like going to a horror movie. We imagine all kinds of outcomes that may or may not ever take place.

One way to figure out how you scare yourself is to listen to your self-talk.

Take a moment to write these fill-in-the-blanks for these statements:

• People won’t buy from me because______
• I can’t have what I want in life because ______
• I can’t be who I’m meant to become because ______
• I don’t deserve to have what I want because ______
• If someone rejects my offer, I will ______

Learned fears

We were not born with these fears.

Our past experiences and the people in our lives have taught us how to be afraid of the future and about our ability to meet it successfully.

Sometimes we make generalizations about life because of one bad experience. Mark Twain said, “The cat, having sat upon a hot stove lid, will not sit upon a hot stove lid again. But he won’t sit upon a cold stove lid, either.”

Change your self-talk

• What if you changed the way you talk to yourself?
• What if you remembered all the times in your life when you were able to accomplish what you set out to do, big or small?
• What if you thought back to all the times you were scared and still took action?

Most of us have heard about positive affirmations. Affirmations are statements of what you want to be true. But sometimes using affirmations feels false, because the affirmations talk about a future truth that’s not quite true yet.

Instead, consider overcoming your limiting beliefs by using what David Gershon and Gail Straub call Growing Edge statements, writing and using statements that are true today, and that still move you towards what you want. These are your growing edge — the next place that growth needs to happen so you can reach your goals.

Instead of the affirmation: “I am a successful small business owner making a 6-figure income,”

Use a Growing Edge statement: “I am capable of finding people who can teach me about increasing my revenue stream,” or “I try a new marketing technique each month and chart the results.”

See the difference?

These modified affirmations are still positive and still motivational. But they feel honest and true, so instead of resisting them, you find they empower you. And once you’ve mastered that Growing Edge statement, you can modify it for each new growing edge to keep you moving forward.

Just keep the Growing Edge statement truthful AND challenging. Don’t write a statement that’s too easy or too hard…you will sabotage yourself.

• Write statements that are challenging: they make the hair stand up on the back of your neck, ones that feel like you are reaching and growing
• Write statements that also feel completely possible. In your gut, you know you can do it.
• Remember this mantra: challenging but do-able. That’s the place of personal growth and empowerment.

It’s okay to feel fear. But don’t let it stop you from moving forward. Tell yourself: I feel scared, but I’m able to move one step forward today towards my goals and dreams, because it’s more important for me to be happy and successful than it is for me to wallow in my fear and tell myself scary stories.

Helen Keller says, “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.”

You can’t know what the outcome of any endeavor will be.

But you do know if you allow fear to keep you stuck, the outcome will not be what you want.

You deserve to have a rich, rewarding, meaningful, and happy lifetime. Live a Daring Adventure!

More from the blog:

• Small Business Fear, Success, and Daily Rituals which help
• How to Raise Your Fees
• 10-Minute Marketing Tasks You Can Do Easily

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The post Let’s Talk About Fear appeared first on Small Business Coaching and Consulting for the Self-Employed.

In this short video tutorial, let’s discuss three things:

• How much of your business revenue will come from your mastermind groups
• How big your mastermind groups will be
• How much time and energy you’ll put into your mastermind groups as the Facilitator

Answering these three questions for yourself will help you design a mastermind group business model that fits your goals while also serving your members.

Watch the free video tutorial about mastermind groups here>>>

The post Which Business Model is Right for Your Mastermind Group? appeared first on Small Business Coaching and Consulting for the Self-Employed.

When you have a deep interest and knowledge in a specific topic, you often forget two things:

1. How much you know about your topics
2. How much other people would like to learn from you

If you want to leverage all your knowledge and skill into new revenue streams, you first must gather it all together and organize it into a system or framwork. This way, your audience understands how each piece of information fits into the bigger picture. Otherwise, it’s simply disjointed information and your audience can’t understand it — and worse, can’t implement it.

And if your audience can’t implement it, they won’t buy from you.

You might be surprised that you already have a “system” or “framework” about how all your knowledge fits together. But it might be in your brain instead of out in the world, which will doom you to failure.

Where you can leverage your content

Once you organize all your knowledge, skills, tools and techniques, it’s time to share it with the world in a cohesive plan. There are two main places to leverage your content:

• as free content in your marketing, to reach your target audience and get known. Content marketing works whether you are selling directly to the consumer (B2C marketing) or whether you are selling to other businesses or corporations (B2B marketing).
• as paid content to give them in-depth instruction so they can implement your ideas and succeed (and paid programs to support them while they’re implementing what they’ve learned).

There are three ways to share content: teaching, speaking and writing. Everything falls into one of these three categories.

Free Content

Free content is the cornerstone of a content marketing plan.

The strategy of content marketing is that you share a small amount of useful content for free, and then expand on that content and teach how to implement it in your paid offers.

Sharing free content is an excellent way to:

1. Get known in your field as a content matter expert
2. Stand out in a crowded marketplace by going beyond a content matter expert — become a “thought leader” and share your unique framework or system
3. Become a trusted source of information, the go-to person a client thinks of first when they’re looking for guidance
4. Drive traffic to your website, which increases your reach and builds your pool of potential
5. Nurture the not-ready customer through the buying cycle – because some prospective customers are early in the buying cycle and need “starter” content from you rather than a paid offer.

Free content delivery methods include: email marketing, blogs, podcasts, video channels, social media content, free speaking gigs, free webinars/tutorials, case studies, whitepapers, tools, worksheets, checklists, books, and ebooks.

Too many delivery methods to choose from?

Start with the delivery method that you are most comfortable with. Some people love to write while others detest it. Some people are natural speakers at live events, while others prefer to pre-record their speaking and teaching via video.

There is no “perfect” way to do content marketing. There’s only one solid rule: Be consistent. Produce content on a steady basis and get out in front of your audience often (without deluging them). I’ve seen too many marketing plans fail miserably because a small business owner started a blog or podcast, posted 3 times, and then abandoned it to try something new.

Design a monthly content marketing plan that makes production and posting easy. But please — be aware that your audience is hungry for your information AND they’re also busy — so respect their time. Some social media gurus say you have to post multiple times a day. There is no way your audience can keep up with that firehose of information and you’ll lose audience if you overwhelm them.

Here’s my blog post on how to use teaching to grow your business.

How to leverage free content:

Don’t just post it in one place — post it everywhere your customer might see it. For example, you have a blog on your website. What if a prospective customer doesn’t know about your website? They’ll never see your blog.

Go ahead and post it on social media and in your email marketing, too. Use the same content for a video tutorial on YouTube, and add it to a free or inexpensive webinar on the same topic.

Don’t forget traditional marketing options; send your article to the local newspaper, the regional business journal, or a national industry magazine. Share your ideas with podcast, radio, and TV hosts who are looking for new guests to interview.

Paid Content

This is where you build your revenue streams.

Your paid offers might be the final end-product that a customer buys — OR it might be the gateway product leading to higher sales. For instance, a $249 two-day workshop can lead to a $30,000 a year mastermind group.

Here’s my blog post on how to start and run a mastermind group.

Much like free content, there are many delivery methods for paid content.

Speaking:

Get paid for giving keynote speeches on your topic at conferences, events and corporate meetings. I’ll add here “facilitating corporate meetings” when you are brought in both as a content matter expert and an expert at leading corporate or board meetings.

Coaching and consulting fits under “speaking” when you work one-on-one with clients. While it’s not a supremely leveraged offer, it is still a paid offer to consider. People will always pay to work privately with a content expert when they want quick results or have a unique situation where a training workshop would be inappropriate.

Teaching:

You have many choices on how to deliver paid training content. You can deliver it live, in-person through a workshop or conference. The same content could be delivered live, virtually via Zoom video conference. You can pre-record video tutorials, or bundle the teaching into a membership group or mastermind group.

Writing:

Nothing beats a book for being seen as a thought leader — especially if it’s via a traditional publisher. Also, consider self-publishing a book — it’s easier now than ever before. Look into getting paid to write articles for other publications or a chapter in someone else’s book. Ebooks are a quick way to get your information in the hands of your audience. (Hint: ebooks don’t need to be as long as traditionally-published physical books. You can create and sell a 50-page ebook easily.)

Mastermind Groups and Membership Programs:

Often a combination of speaking and teaching, this form of group consulting and coaching allows you work with larger groups of clients in one place. It’s excellent for leveraging your time and marketing, as group work often yields more revenue than one-on-one work.

• Mastermind groups allow you to facilitate groups of peers who help each other to reach goals and solve problems by sharing collective wisdom and holding each other accountable for getting things done. You’ll use all your skills as a mastermind group facilitator: speaking, teaching, coaching, consulting, and facilitation.
• Membership programs are another way to leverage your time, and can include teaching, group Q+A meetings, events, pre-created training material, etc.

Example of how to leverage paid content:

This is where having a system or framework that organizes all your content becomes a revenue stream!

Let me use my One Action Now book and workshop as an example to show you how I leveraged one paid offer into five paid offers, one leap at a time.

In this example, my offers grew organically from one to another — essentially, I stumbled into the other paid offers because clients asked for them.

But once I mastered this process, I now intentionally create product lines into tiers like this:

• First, I worked one-on-one with private small business clients. Though it was not intentional, it did help me to design and test my “system” in the real world. Truthfully, I never really acknowledged it as a system for helping small business owners to set goals and create project plans. It was simply my repeatable process I used all the time. I noticed over several years my private consulting clients kept bringing the same problems to our meetings. When something worked for one client, I tried it with the next client. If a step didn’t work, I tweaked it so the whole system worked flawlessly. Over time, I realized what I was teaching them could be gathered together and taught in a logical way — into a system or framework that could be easily shared with others.
• Second, I began to gather everything I knew, and designed a framework that made sense. I wasn’t looking to create a full workshop — I simply wanted to write a short e-book for my paying mastermind group members about how to set goals, create project plans, manage their time, and stop procrastinating. Once they read the e-book, they wanted to learn more and asked me if I could teach a fuller version as a workshop.
• Third, I designed my One Action Now workshop. I taught this workshop for three years, both privately to my mastermind group members and publically to other small business owners outside my group. I also taught it as a paid class at national industry conferences. That way, instead of teaching one client at a time, I could teach a group of students, thus leveraging my time and increasing my income. Over those three years, I added to and tested my system. Plus I got feedback from students about what worked and didn’t work for them, which allowed me to perfect my system.
• Fourth, I wrote my full One Action Now paperback book. Book sales led to more people joining my paid workshop and my mastermind groups – a virtuous cycle!
• Fifth, I license my One Action Now workshop and provide train-the-trainer workshops, so that other small business consultants can teach my One Action Now workshop to their audiences. This is the “ultimate leverage” — my content gets out to a bigger audience but I don’t have to do all the work.

It took several years for One Action Now to form because I wasn’t intentional about my goal. Now, when I create a new paid offer, I’m already designing the next few related paid offer and get the whole set of offers launched quickly. Planning and a strong goal is the key!

This is just one example of how to leverage paid content into more paid offers. There are dozens of ways to do this. Be creative — you can mix and match your offers so that they revolve around your unique intellectual property, which helps you to stand out in a crowded marketplace.

What’s next for you?

Think about all the information, wisdom, and skills you have. Think about what people need to know and/or what they ask you about all the time. (When someone asks, “Can I pick your brains?” pay attention! It’s a clue.)

You’ll soon realize you DO have much to share with the world, you simply need to gather it, organize it, and leverage it to increase your income.

Got questions? Add a comment below. I’ll be writing more companion blog post about leveraging your content and expanding your reach. If you’d like me to narrow in on a topic that’s important to you, let me know.

The post Leverage Your Content for New Revenue Streams appeared first on Small Business Coaching and Consulting for the Self-Employed.

I’m not an intellectual property attorney. But I’ve had my small business work stolen enough times that I know how to protect myself!

It’s really important that you do copyright your work officially through your government channels. Yes, most governments say that the moment you create something it is considered copyrighted. But the fact is if someone steals your work, you have to prove you were the first one to create it.

Submitting your materials officially to your government’s copyright office saves you a lot of headaches later on.

What work can you copyright?

Anything with your unique content that you created yourself:

• group and training program materials
• forms and worksheets
• books (physical or ebooks)
• audio and video programs, including training programs, podcasts, webinars, etc.
• educational exercises
• processes and frameworks
• your website content
• blog and article content
• student guides and participant workbooks
• songs/jingles
• photos/images/artwork

What can’t you copyright?

If you include someone else’s materials inside your work, you can’t copyright that portion of your work (because the copyright already belongs to the person who created it).

For instance, if you create a slide deck and use stock photos, you can’t copyright the photographic portion of your slide deck. But you can copyright the words, if they are your own.

If you’ve been hired by a client to custom-create a piece of work, you need to determine per your contract who owns that copyright. It’s likely that, as a “work for hire” project, that output is owned by the person who hired you to create it unless your contract specifically indicates that you are the owner (that’s rare).

It’s your material, you should protect it.

If you’re in the USA, you can upload your material via the US Copyright Office website.

• If you upload your materials, it’s only a small fee. It takes a few months for them to process your paperwork if you upload it digitally.
• If you mail hard-copy, the fee is slightly more expensive, but it can take 9-12 months for them to process it!

So if you can, upload your copyright application and materials digitally. Fees change, so check out the Copyright Office website for their current fees. As of April 2025, it’s $45 to submit a copyright application electronically and more if you submit via paper.

You’ll also find a Copyright Basics article (PDF) on the US Copyright Office website, as well as a list of Frequently Asked Questions.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) protects your online material.

In 2019, the CASE Act (Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act) was passed, which allowed for some copyright disputes to be brought to small claims court, making it an affordable alternative.

Bundling your material pays off

You have to pay the copyright registration fee for each item you copyright. However, the USA Copyright Office allows you to “bundle” material together and call it a “program.”

For instance, when I copyrighted the Mastermind Group Facilitator Training class, my bundle included:

1. my lesson plan
2. my student guide
3. all the forms I give to students
4. any slides I created

I called my submission to the Copyright Office “The Mastermind Group Facilitator Training Program” and uploaded just one PDF file with all the contents.

I also take all my articles and blog posts from one year, put them together in one PDF, and upload the one bundle entitled, “Karyn Greenstreet 2024 articles” (for each year). Imagine I write 40 blog posts a year: if I had submitted them as separate PDF files, it would have cost me $1,800. Because I bundled it into one PDF file, I paid one fee for the whole submission – $45.

Once you get your copyright number back from the government, put it on everything: your website (if you copyrighted it), your forms, your student/group materials, etc. Let people clearly know that you have an official date stamp of when you created your materials, in case someone copies your work.

This is especially important if you have created a program or system from scratch. You put a huge amount of time and effort into creating your materials and your process. Take the 15 minutes and a few dollars to protect it.

What about the “poor man’s copyright?”

There is a concept called the “poor man’s copyright” where you send a copy of your work to yourself in a sealed envelope, so that the date of copyright is established by the postmark. People thought this would protect them: it does NOT.

This is what the US Copyright Office has to say about that:

The practice of sending a copy of your own work to yourself is sometimes called a “poor man’s copyright.” There is no provision in the copyright law regarding any such type of protection, and it is not a substitute for registration.

What about copyright in other countries?

Many countries have agreements to honor each other’s copyrighted materials. Some countries do not have a copyright submission process, but recognize outside for-profit and non-profit companies that accept copyright submissions. It might be called a “copyright office” or an “intellectual property (IP) office” in your country.

One hint that a website is the official government website for copyright information and protection is that the URL of their website may have “.gov” or “.govt” in the URL.

Note: often the copyright information and the trademark information are on different pages for your government’s website, and sometimes are established under separate departments, so you might need to search their site for the relevant information.

• USA Copyright Office
• USA Patent and Trademark Office
• Canada Intellectual Property Office
• European Union copyright page
• Australian Attorney General’s Office copyright page
• Australian Trademarks and Patents
• United Kingdom (copyrights, patents and trademarks)
• New Zealand copyright page

Be careful that you get to your official national government site for copyright information and applications. There are many for-profit websites that offer to submit copyrights for you, but it’s not the same as getting the information directly from the government agency that does the work and knows the laws. (Plus, it’s easy to do it yourself; you don’t need to pay an extra fee unless there is some question about how to apply the law to your specific situation.)

The best place to get your questions answered about copyrighting (and patents and trademarks) is your official government website devoted to the topic.

If you find a website for your country’s government office that I’ve not included in this blog post, please let me know so that we can all share the resources. Thanks!

Copyright versus Trademark

Note that a copyright is not the same thing as a trademark or a patent. See your country’s websites to learn the difference.

For instance, you can’t copyright the title of your book. But if you have a training or group program with the same name as your book, you can trademark that program title.

You can trademark a logo or a business name, but you can’t copyright them.

Here’s a good article on copyright vs. trademark and how to know which one you need.

Are you willing to take them to court?

If someone steals your work, you can get an attorney to write a “cease and desist” letter in an attempt to get the thief to comply with the law. Sometimes that works, and sometimes they ignore you.

The real question then becomes: are you willing to take someone to court over a copyright infringement?

It depends on what it’s worth to you. If the work that was stolen from you is the one thing you’re known for, or the one thing that makes you competitive in the marketplace, then the answer would be yes, take them to court.

But the fees involved can be prohibitive, which is what the thief is counting on. That’s why in 2019, the US government passed the CASE Act (Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act), to create a pathway for some claims to go through Small Claims court – which is much less expensive.

Check in your country to see if a similar law has been passed to protect individuals and small business owners from high-fee copyright/trademark disputes.

What about people who steal your website text or blog posts?

So…what if someone does steal your website text? Read my blog post about Are Thieves Stealing Your Website Text? It includes information about what to do if you find that someone has broken your copyright.

The final story

It is well worth the time and money to officially copyright your materials and the work you have created. Add time to your calendar right now to focus on this important task.

I’ll get off my soapbox now. 

Read the companion article, Who Owns Your Website, You or Your Website Designer?

The post How to Copyright Your Materials appeared first on Small Business Coaching and Consulting for the Self-Employed.

First, a Marketo study found that 58% of people read email first thing in the morning, many reading it before eating breakfast.

Is it just email addiction — or is there a good reason for it?

As a small business owner, I have a HUGE reason for reading email first thing in the morning: my customers matter to me more than anything. Most of my clients and students communicate with me via email, so taking care of their needs first thing in the morning is simply good customer service.

Why do the time management folks act like email is evil?

Because we don’t separate “important” email from “read this when you get a chance” email.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with reading email first, just like there’s nothing wrong with writing your blog post first each morning or doing yoga first thing or working on a major project first thing. You have to pick your priorities and focus on the task at hand. It’s all about goal setting and self-discipline.

• For instance, I do not use my personal business email address when signing up for ezines and email newsletters. That way, my personal Inbox doesn’t get crowded with non-essentials and stops a lot of spam from ever reaching me. If there is an email in my personal Inbox, it’s because it’s important, like an email from a client, colleague, or my business partner. (A colleague told me that she has 250 new emails each morning. My question to her is: WHY do you allow so many emails get into your personal business Inbox? They can’t possibly all be of the same importance level.)
• Another reason I read email first is that it’s the only real quiet time I have during my working hours. Typically, the phone doesn’t start ringing until 9:00 am and using the pre-phone time to read email allows me to focus.
• My business partner handles any routine customer service questions from people who have bought my programs or students who have lost their login ID.
• I quickly scan my new emails and only answer those ones that are most urgent. I leave the rest of them for later in the day, after I’ve done my other daily prep work.
• Finally, I read email first because it’s when I’m the freshest and smartest. Do you really want to be writing emails when your brain is fuzzy?

If email is an important part of communicating with your customers then go ahead and read it first thing.

Just pay strict attention to whether you’re keeping focused on the Communicating With Customers task or veering off to read articles, news, jokes, quotations, or watching YouTube videos of Surprised Kitty instead of doing your work. Set a time limit, say 30 minutes, and get through the most important emails first.

The post Why I Always Read Email First Thing Each Morning appeared first on Small Business Coaching and Consulting for the Self-Employed.

No?

Join the crowd.

Self-employed entrepreneurs complain that email, phone calls, social media, and their beeping-buzzing smart phones are constantly causing interruptions, increasing stress and reducing productivity.

These interruptions are costing you productivity — and ultimately income.

In my blog post Choose One Project, I talk about the myth of multitasking. Talking on Zoom and answering emails at the same time decreases your overall productivity.

So does popping into social media sites while you’re trying to focus on an important project or task.

When you multitask or allow interruptions to your task, it causes twice the number of errors.

By allowing all these interruptions, you are losing TWO hours a day of productive time. Ouch!

Imagine that: say you work an 8-hour day. That means 25% of that time is LOST and WASTED.

The Solution

Many large corporations like Intel, IBM, and Deloitte & Touche have instituted something called Quiet Time: a block of time to work on a project in which you cannot send or read emails, cannot make or receive phone calls, and cannot attend meetings (unless they are related to the specific project you’re working on).

Others are required to honor your Quiet Time and not interrupt you.

Small business owners can do this, too!

I started to do this a few years ago with great success.

Here’s how I structure my business day and week for ultimate productivity:

• For me, Core Productivity times are 9:00am – 2:30pm. All private client meetings, group mentoring calls, classes, and project work are done during these hours.
• When I’m working on a big project, every Friday is “all day project day.” No client or prospect meetings, no emails from 9:00 – 2:30, no phone calls at all. If necessary, I’ll block out other full days to get that project done. I work better and smarter if I can hyper-focus on one thing for an entire day and get it done. (Added benefit: it trains my brain to focus rather than drift away to each shiny object that wants to derail my thoughts. This is a great technique if you haven’t been as focused as you used to be.)
• Emails are handled twice a day – at 8:00 am and 2:30 pm. Here’s my blog post on why I read email first thing each morning, which includes other email productivity hacks.
• Each day, return phone calls are handled after 2:30 (which is great because of the time zone differences between my east coast and west coast clients).
• When I really, really needed to work on a project in a deeply focused way, I’d bring my laptop to the lake, park or library, taking my work to an ultra-quiet environment without possible distractions. (I particularly like the lake because there’s no Wi-Fi there!)

The Results of My Quiet Time Test

When I first instituted Quiet Time in my business, I tracked it for a year to see if really worked.

In 12 months, I accomplished these major projects:

• Designed and launched three new classes (including a 9-week class which took over 100 hours to design)
• Wrote one new book (One Action Now, all about project and time management for small business owners!)
• Redesigned two of our websites, including redesigning two blogs
• Redefined our entire business model and a major marketing release of a new one-year mastermind group/training program
• Overall, had a much happier and more satisfying lifestyle and work environment (especially important: never worked evenings and weekends!)

Awesome!

Lest you think that you will be less productive in getting through your emails and phone calls if you institute Quiet Time in your business, think again. Having fixed times each day for email and phone calls increases your productivity and reduces the total time you spend on emails and phone calls. (I found I could get through 30-40 emails in a solid, planned hour, which would have taken me two hours if I had answered them scattered fashion throughout the day.)

If you are frustrated because you’re not accomplishing your projects and tasks, you need to schedule Quiet Time into each day. You will be happier and feel more fulfilled by your work if you do.

How About You?

Do you regularly block out time to get projects done? What are you doing to increase your productivity without getting burned out?

The post Increase Your Productivity: Institute Quiet Time appeared first on Small Business Coaching and Consulting for the Self-Employed.

But ask yourself: What does my prospective customer want and need?

Studies have shown the consumers want to see prices of products and services. Even a price range is sufficient. But many business owners have reasons why they prefer to not include pricing on their websites.

How can you decide which way to go? Here are some pros and cons to consider:

PROS: Nine reasons to put your fees and prices on your website

1. Trust. Many potential customers will not do business with a company that is not forthcoming about pricing and fees. They simply won’t waste their time talking with a sales rep only to find out that the price is too high, or that the price is too low (which may feel cheap or low quality to them).
2. Price Range. Customers want to know what they’re going to pay for your service or product, or at least have a ballpark figure. It helps them with budgeting.
3. Unaffordability Beliefs. Some customers believe (perhaps incorrectly) that if the price is not shown, then it must be very high. They reason, “If you’re not showing me the price, I probably can’t afford it.”
4. Efficiency. People who can’t afford your services or products will not request a prospect sales meeting. Hear me out: do you want to spend time convincing people that they can afford you, when they really think they can’t or don’t see the value you are offering? It’s hard to have sales meetings with people who have unrealistic expectations because they don’t know the fees. Trying to convince them is a hard-sell tactic that I choose to avoid.
5. Branding. Pricing is a strategic marketing decision because it helps to set your brand apart from others. Are you the low-cost leader? Are you the expert who people pay more for because you’re worth it? Your fees tell the prospective customer where you place yourself among the others in your industry and which target market you want to serve. There is no right or wrong pricing strategy. The key is that you’ve developed a pricing alignment strategy while doing your marketing and branding plans.
6. Discounting. For products and classes, there’s typically no negotiation in pricing: either they purchase it or they don’t. If you want a tiered pricing approach for your products and classes, you can either offer discount coupon codes, while keeping your full-price offer on your website. If you don’t plan to offer discounts, you can offer payment plans, if that helps your customer make a buying decision. If you offer special pricing for nonprofits, put your regular fees on your website and add a sentence about the availability of nonprofit pricing.
7. Budgeting. If people feel like they can’t afford you, but want to work with you, they now have a price point, and they can start savings towards working with you. I have had a number of clients tell me that they saved for two months in order to work with me.
8. Honoring. Your customers are busy and time-constrained. They need information at the moment when they have time to do their research. Don’t make them jump through hoops. Try to be helpful in getting them all the information they need, not just in your pricing, but in the valuable benefits you offer.
9. Information Gathering. People look for a price range so they can get some budgeting ideas — they may be a perfect customer for you, even if they’re just doing research. One of the important stages your customers’ sales path is the Information Gathering phase when they are researching possible solutions. Get to know your prospective customer’s process for making buying decisions and plan your marketing accordingly.

If you are struggling with your marketing and sales, solve the mystery of why your customers aren’t buying your products and services. Click here to get a free copy of my Discover the Missing Link ebook.

CONS: Ten reasons not to put your fees and prices on your site

1. Customized Services or Products. Sometimes you can’t list your prices, because each person gets a customized quote based on what they need from you, like a home builder or a website designer. But you can offer packages with a note that says, “Fees start at…” for each package. Or show them examples of your work and indicate what each of those project fees were.
2. Competition. You’re afraid your competition will find out how much you charge. Bad news: your competition already knows what you charge. It’s easy for them to have a friend pose as a prospective customer and get your entire price list. Or your customers tell others what they paid. You’ll have a tough time keeping your pricing private, especially in the internet age.
3. Value and Selling Strategy. You feel that they need to talk with you first, so that you can show them how valuable your service is, before quoting them a price. That is the job of your website copywriting. If your website is written well, it will easily show someone whether you can solve their problem and that the price they’ll pay is worth it. Then, when a prospective customer finally does call you, they’ve already been pre-sold by your website and you don’t have to struggle to convince them to buy. I figure if a sales rep needs to speak with me, it’s because they think the product or service “needs explaining,” or that they need to “handle my objections.” Neither is a good excuse to waste my time on something that doesn’t need explaining or should have been explained thoroughly on the website. Need help with your copywriting? Read my blog post on 6 Copywriting Steps for Non-Copywriters.
4. Rapport. Your service is based on your personality and your rapport with your customers. Therefore, they need to speak with you in order to make the human connection and see if it’s a good fit. I agree with this 100%. But if it’s a perfect fit, and they can’t afford you, how does that benefit either of you? Why not put some videos on your website, or offer some free webinars or workshops, so they get a chance to “experience” you before the sales meeting is scheduled.
5. Price Fixing. You (or your industry) is concerned about price fixing. By definition, price fixing is a conscious agreement among businesses within an industry to keep the price of something unnaturally high or low, instead of letting free-market forces determine what each customer pays. Putting your own prices on your own website is not a conscious agreement with other businesses, it’s not a conspiracy and therefore is not price fixing. If you’re really concerned that you’ll be accused of price fixing, consult your business attorney.
6. Mimics. You are concerned that competitors who are less qualified than you will increase their prices to mimic yours, but offer poor service. Let them. You cannot be responsible for what your competitor does. If they charge too much and offer a shoddy product or service, they’ll be out of business soon enough anyway.
7. Uniqueness. You feel that your service or product is not unique, and is exactly the same as what your competitor offers. This is called a “commodity.” But a commodity implies that what the customer is purchasing is the same, regardless of the vendor (like milk, flour or gasoline). When your marketing message is clear on what makes you unique, different, or better than your competitor, you avoid being seen as a commodity. This is called your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). If you don’t have one, get one.
8. Ongoing Marketing. You’re concerned that if someone sees your prices and walks away before talking with you, you won’t have any way to connect with them in the future. It’s an easily fixable problem. This is where having a free or low-cost offer on your website which adds them to your mailing list is helpful. Think: email newsletter, webinar, tutorial, or whitepaper. However, you need to handle these people differently than you would a bona fide prospect, because they’re in the Information Gathering stage of the sales cycle, not the Decision Making phase.  Establish your sales and marketing strategy and funnel, and reach out to people based on where they are along the sales path. (Pick up my free ebook, Discover the Missing Link, which explains how to work with people in different phases of the sales cycle.)
9. Price Shopping and Tire Kickers. If they’re shopping on price alone, they’re probably not your ideal customer unless you are Wal-Mart. People who shop only based on price will leave you when they find someone cheaper. If you put your prices on your website, you get the “I want it cheap” people to exit before they waste your time. If a prospective customer is truly only shopping on price, then it wouldn’t matter if you tell them the price on the phone or on your website.
10. Not Knowing Your Worth. It’s true. Many small business owners feel uncomfortable setting their prices because they don’t truly know their value. Here’s my blog post about setting your service fees.

What to do?

Whether you put your prices on your website or not is a personal business decision. It depends on your business and marketing strategy. Just make sure you make your decision based on what’s helpful to your customer and right for your marketing plan and brand, not based on your fears about what “might” happen.

If you don’t put your prices on your website, it may be helpful to explain to people why you didn’t include them, and explain what the next step is in the process. Prospective customers will be curious to understand why they need to speak with you first.

So…should you put your pricing on your website or not?

The best thing you can do is test it. Put your prices on your site for four weeks, and compare the results.

If you get more inquiries, more sales, and easier conversions, then you know your audience found it helpful.

You’ll never know if something works or not until you try it.

Do you put your prices on your site? Why or why not?

When visiting other sites, do you want to find pricing there? If you don’t see a price on a website, does that mean you stop shopping there?

The post Should You Put Your Prices on Your Website? Pros and Cons appeared first on Small Business Coaching and Consulting for the Self-Employed.