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Have you ever been driving and been blinded by the sun? This happened to my neighbor just the other day. He’s an 18-year old kid who was in his first car accident. No one was hurt, but his car was totaled. The cause of the accident was the sun!

He was facing the sun while trying to make a left-hand turn and couldn’t see the oncoming car. Today, as I walked my dog, I noticed the same thing. I could hear a car approaching us – but I couldn’t see it!

Not being able to see an oncoming car because of glare is a lot like not being able to see your customers because of business preoccupation.

Business Preoccupation Syndrome

Business preoccupation is a syndrome that affects many small business owners. Some of its symptoms are:

• Nonstop talking about YOUR business.
• Constant thinking about how great your product or service is.
• Frustration that other’s don’t see the light like you do

The way to overcome Business Preoccupation is to turn around. Literally face away from the sun of your own business.

See Another’s Sun

You see, everyone has their own sun. Each person’s sun lights their way in the form of goals, aspirations, excitement, and direction. However, everyone is a little bit blinded by their own sun as well. We tend to think “our sun” is the best one and it can blind us to the interests and needs of other individuals. Try this Exercise to See Someone Else’s Sun:

1. Think about why you love your business.
2. Get really excited about it.
3. Stand up and turn around. (Go ahead no one’s watching.)
4. Now think about a prospect who hasn’t purchased from you yet.
5. Try to understand where this person is coming from – try to see their sun.
6. Get as excited about their needs as you did about your own business.
7. Sit back down & record what you thought & felt.

This exercise can help you get into the minds of your prospects. Understanding what your customers think, feel, dream, and what keeps them up at night helps you develop better products/services to serve them. Providing solutions for THEM, means you make more sales. It’s a Win/Win Solution.

What One Thing Do You Do To Understand Your Prospect Better?

If you want to make money, however, then it doesn’t make sense to use a free service. With a free service you don’t have complete control of your site. Also many free programs will shut you down if you “commercialize” their site. I didn’t realize this until a friend had her site shut down. It was sad because she had put time and effort into her blog and she can no longer use it.

WordPress isn’t the only program you can use to blog, however. Before I began my blog I did some research on several programs that I could host myself. (As you’ll get to know through my blog, I am big on research. I absolutely love it! I know, I’m quirked – and yes that is a word and I like dictionaries too.)

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. Why I choose WordPress:

• It’s free. Why pay for something when you can get a great product free?
• It’s open source. I love open-source software. I feel it's the wave of the future. Besides the development and support benefits, I think it also helps connect us throughout the world.
• It's easy to customize. Many times you can change the placement of widgets and text with the click of a button.
• There are thousands of free themes. You can easily change the look of your website each month if you want. You can also pay for themes for very reasonable prices.

There are tons of plugins. Some plugins are practical (like Aksimet for spam control). Some plugins are fun (like Quotes Collection for rotating quotes.)

• It is the most popular blogging software program in the World. When many people talk about blogs, they are discussing WordPress.
• WordPress supports importing information from several other blogs, so if you decide to switch to WordPress it can be easily done.

Have I convinced you yet that WordPress is the best blogging software? I hope so.

Where did it go? Why do I think I will remember these thoughts, when I know I won’t?

Is it because it wasn’t fully formed and so I don’t have a point of reference? But it was about a client’s website. Isn’t that enough of a reference so I could remember it?

Our minds are funny things. I don’t really understand how they work, but I do know they can’t be forced. I will have to let this go and hope it comes back to me in the middle of the night. This is why I keep a notebook and pen in the bathroom – so when I have an “ah-ha” that wakes me up, I can scurry and write it down.

I guess I need to learn how to dictate into my phone. That way maybe I can keep my scattered brain in check.

What do you do to keep your thoughts organized & remember-able?

EXCEPT WHEN IT’S NOT.

Even if you’re living the life you love, there will be times you’re not enjoying it. When this happens, it doesn’t mean anything is wrong. You don’t need to change jobs or get a new significant other. Life isn’t always happy. It’s not meant to be.

How can you comprehend cold without also understanding hot?

Opposites are the balancing factor in life. They make us appreciate the differences. If the colors of fall were always on the trees we wouldn’t appreciate them.

When I was a new mother I was passionate about my baby. He was the most perfect thing to happen to my life. So when he smiled, it was heaven. When he had colic and cried, it was Hades. I fretted. What was I doing wrong? I had read lots of parenting books so I consciously understood that babies cried and had discomforts, but surely my perfect son wouldn’t have colic. I didn’t understand this on an emotional level. I thought something was wrong with me.

There wasn’t anything wrong with me – or my newborn. It was just life. My passion was tempered by reality. And that’s okay. I had imagined a perfect world where babies don’t cry, toddlers don’t whine, and children don’t beg for candy at the grocery store. I’ve eaten my proclamations of, “my child won’t . . .” more times than I can count.

And I’d do it all over again!

Yes. I am still passionate about being a mother.

Passion in Business

It’s the same in business. I love the writing process – researching, reading, pondering, and finally writing. I enjoy helping others promote their business.

Except sometimes when I don’t want to . . .

Then I take a break. Even just 10 minutes. Put on some jazzy music. Run up and down my stairs. Eat a square of dark chocolate. Lay on the bed with my eyes closed.

Something, anything different. The desire soon returns. Even if it doesn’t, and I’m not enjoying the project, I realize that being passionate about something doesn’t mean that it’s always sublime.

What about you? How do you keep your life passionate when it’s not?

For example when I was wondering how to write this article on marketing, Sage gave me the look. The look told me that I really should be a dog; but because I’m not a dog, she’d help me anyway because I gave her a big piece of ham this morning. Then she looked at me and told me that I needed to tell the truth. Once I got her message, she went to sleep. So what is the truth? The truth is that I don’t market in the traditional sense – because I hate selling.

Marketing Strategy: Give to Receive

When I talk to my clients about marketing, many of them tell me they hate it. They tell me things such as, “I don’t know what to say.” Or, “I don’t want to be too pushy.” My advice to them is not to sell. I hate selling as well. So how does someone who hates selling let people know about their products and services without being pushy?

Permission Marketing.

Permission Marketing is turning strangers into friends and friends into customers. (This is from Seth Godin.)

The best way to get permission marketing to work for you is to give. Give advice, samples, freebies, trials, and other such goodies related to what you do in your business. Don’t expect anything in return for these goodies. (That defeats the purpose of giving.)

When you give something for free, it creates good feelings towards you from those you give to. They might not need whatever it is you gave them right now, but when they do need your services or products, they will think of you first because of your gift. They will also readily refer people to you.

An example of this is when someone learns that I am a copywriter. I get lots of requests to look over items of copy that someone has written. I don’t charge for this (unless it’s a very long item such as a booklet). I spend a few minutes going over the item, and then I give the person my impressions. Usually I will find many good things and one or two things that need improvement. This doesn’t take a long time and has given me tons of business.

Even if the person decides to change the flier herself, she will remember that I offered advice for free. She will think of me the next time someone mentions that they need a brochure or something written.

So what freebies can you give to your prospects and clients?

This is a shameless promotion . . .

that used to be on my front page. When I changed my front page I deleted the writing below, but I still liked it, so now it's a post.

Aren't blogs great!

Your Million Dollar Message Wants to be Seen

RIGHT NOW your ideal customers are eagerly waiting to learn about your product or service.

BUT . . .
Your customers are inundated with advertising every day. Advertising is so common in our lives that we naturally tune it out. This means you need messages that get through this marketing clutter. You’ve got to grab attention, be clear, and be credible.

How can you get your message heard?

With the words you use.
On the web, content makes all the difference.
The right words cut through advertising clutter.

The right words can:

• capture attention – using terms that connect with your customers.
• conquer objections – discussing the emotional benefits of what you sell.
• compel action – focusing messages that persuade prospects to act now.

Content created specifically with your customers in mind will:

1. Speak to each customer as an individual – forging a connection to you and your service.
2. Touch your customer’s emotional hot buttons – creating that “I want it NOW,” feeling.
3. Show your product's unique advantages – helping your customer visualize herself using and benefiting from this product.

The bottom line is increased sales – through compelling messages which satisfy the deepest needs of your customers.

I speak with empathy, power, and persuasion to get your message Write On!

Contact me today to see if we’re a good fit for each other,

Everything fell apart. I had too much to do, and not enough time to do it, and things weren’t going right. My bank couldn’t find a large check I had deposited last week. A client gave me a rush job that I really didn’t have time for, but I wanted to accommodate them.

Finally, sometime around noon, I sat down and made a list of the things I needed to do. I prioritized what actually had to be done that day. I broke them into manageable bites and started working. Things went much smoother, and I actually got a few things done. The bank also found my check, which relieved my stress quite a bit.

Before I go to bed, I usually review how my day went. Yesterday I thought about all the people I work with who also work from home. I thought about how they manage things. These are a few of the common traits I came up with:

1. Goals. Most of the successful small businesses I work with have set specific goals. Goal-oriented individuals seem to achieve more. I think this is because specific goals make you accountable for your actions and your time. Goals should be reviewed and adjusted as needed.
2. Systems. Successful people have systems in place that help them flourish. Those who struggle let the demands of life, family, and friends dictate what they do. (My systems fell apart yesterday.)
3. Learning. Thriving home-based business people are continually learning new things that help them with their business.
4. Mindset. Successful people have a different mindset than unsuccessful individuals. (Yesterday when I changed my mindset, things started to flow better.)
5. Support. Whenever you work from home, you need others you can reach out to and ask for assistance. This could include just whining about your day, or advice on an ad you’re thinking of running.

People work from home for different reasons. If you define your reasons, you are much more likely to feel successful. Also defining your reasons for working from home helps you reach your own (very personal) success level.

So when your day falls apart, review the above tips and see if they don’t help.

What other things can you add to this list?

That's about the best time management statement I've read.

If something is important enough, it gets done.

What do you think?

Taking risks also means that sometimes you might fail. This is scary to most people (including me). In fact it's so scary that sometimes we don’t even try to succeed!

I remember one day in high school when I was taking a difficult test. I was worried about getting a good grade and had spent time studying for the test. As I walked into class I heard a student say he hadn’t even studied and so, of course, he was going to fail. I remember being amazed at that attitude. I didn’t get it. As I got older, it actually began to make sense, in a convoluted way. If you don’t try, of course you are going to fail. Many people do this with their jobs, or their companies, as well.

So how can you get over this fear of failure? Fail!

That’s right. Experience a failure and recover from it. I've had many failures in my life, both personally and professionally. Some were small, but several were big - personally (when I got divorced), and professionally (when I was laid off from a job). Neither one was an experience I would like to go through again, but learned that life goes on. In fact, life can actually get better. Being laid off was one of the big factors that helped me start my own home-based business years ago, and I thoroughly enjoy working from home.

Many well-known multi-millionaires have experienced bankruptcy. This list includes Walt Disney, Henry Ford, J.C. Penney, and Sam Walton. They lived through the experience of bankruptcy and went on to create huge, profitable businesses. In fact, according to Dan Kennedy, who has also been through bankruptcy, “bankruptcy is one of those profound experiences that leads the entrepreneur to full and complete understanding of just how replaceable money is.” He goes on to state, “fears about money inhibit your wealth attraction powers. Absence of fears about money releases your full wealth attraction power.”

Isn’t that the truth! We all want to do business with successful individuals who are not desperate. I think it’s because success breeds confidence and confident individuals make better decisions. So how can you gain this confidence to take risks? Once again, just “Do it,” as the Nike ad says.

If you need help overcoming a fear, such as launching your small business, or marketing campaign, or have any ideas on this subject, leave a comment. I love to learn from others’ ideas. That’s one of the reasons I started this blog.