It’s often hard to figure out how to use your time effectively when you start a business. If you have small children you may experience frequent interruptions. Family members or neighbors may think that since you’re at home, you’re free to respond to them during the day. Or you may find yourself working too much and feeling guilty that you are. Let me give you some tips that have helped me and many of my clients to build a highly successful home-based business and the lifestyle we want.

Create a yearly business plan and put your vacations and downtime into your calendar before you start.

In the corporate world this would be impossible, but that’s why we don’t want a J-O-B, right? I have been doing this for the past four years and its great. As a coach I offer live events, membership coaching programs, and private coaching. All of these require my time and energy so I set up a schedule that leaves my vacation time free of all appointments, promotions and obligations. I’ve never met a client that couldn’t choose to do this. Planning is the key. You cannot run your business by the seat of your pants and accomplish this because you’ll always be scrambling for the next dollar. Think out a yearly strategy and figure out exactly how much money you can make for the year. This is what I show every client how to do.

Set a regular work schedule

It takes tremendous self-discipline to build a highly successful business, especially when you work from home. Often when people are struggling, I have them track their time use for one week. Then we rate their time effectiveness based on a simple formula. This is always a shocking exercise as they see how much time is not being used effectively. Time is a powerful energy and you need to use it as wisely as possible. Look at your life obligations and set a regular work schedule. I don’t care if you work in the early morning or late at night. You need to have time put aside where everyone understands you are not to be disturbed because you are working. You need a minimum of 20 hours a week. If you’re working less your progress will be slower.

Priority based work

Make sure that the minute you sit down at your desk you immediately start working on your priority tasks—the ones that will generate money or leads. If you slip into checking and responding to emails, surfing the web or jumping up to do the laundry, you will find your work time gone with no real progress made. Set a timer to remind you of how much time has passed. Set incremental goals—maybe every 30 to 60 minutes. Do this for one week and you’ll be amazed at the difference.

Outsource

You are not an island and you are impeding your own growth if you try doing everything yourself. For just a few hundred dollars a month you can outsource many marketing tasks like e-mail marketing, website updates and social media. This takes hours of rote work off your plate so you can work on getting more leads, creating new and better products and services and serving more clients. Within a few months of hiring my first virtual assistant my income grew substantially. Now I have a virtual team and they’re worth every penny I pay them.

If you think you can’t afford help, you need to change the way you think. No business can be built without an investment. You need to invest in your business if you want clients to invest in you.

Get the right support

Working in a very small or home-based business can be isolating. Before I started my coaching business I owned 3 other businesses. One of them involved being with people each day and managing a staff of fifteen. It was fun to be with people each day and I was quite surprised by the strangeness of living in a virtual world.

Since we no longer gather around the water cooler and have lunch with our colleagues, we need to create other types of support. There are 3 ways you can get the support you need so you can brainstorm and stay on track and avoid feeling isolated.

• Accountability buddy

Find someone who is in a similar situation and form a team to hold each other accountable to reaching weekly goals. Be sure this person is motivated, non-judgmental and has a positive attitude so you get the uplifting support you need.

• Mastermind

Form a small mastermind group with a few other solo-preneurs. Set a structure for checking in, setting goals and holding each other accountable.

• Get a coach or mentor

Finding the right coach can not only help you know exactly which actions to take to fast track your business, you will also be held accountable and skip a lot of struggle. Make sure you chose someone who has already achieved the success you want and make sure you resonate with this person’s philosophy. Also be sure they have had similar success with other clients.

Follow these simple suggestions and you’ll be able to live the lifestyle you want and dramatically increase your income.

It’s often hard to figure out how to use your time effectively when you start a business. If you have small children you may experience frequent interruptions. Family members or neighbors may think that since you’re at home, you’re free to respond to them during the day. Or you may find yourself working too much and feeling guilty that you are. Let me give you some tips that have helped me and many of my clients to build a highly successful homebased business and the lifestyle we want.

Create a yearly business plan and put your vacations and downtime into your calendar before you start.

In the corporate world this would be impossible, but that’s why we don’t want a J-O-B, right? I have been doing this for the past four years and it’s great. As a coach I offer live events, membership coaching programs, and private coaching. All of these require my time and energy so I set up a schedule that leaves my vacation time free of all appointments, promotions and obligations. I’ve never met a client that couldn’t choose to do this. Planning is the key. You cannot run your business by the seat of your pants and accomplish this because you’ll always be scrambling for the next dollar. Think out a yearly strategy and figure out exactly how much money you can make for the year. This is what I show every client how to do.

Set a regular work schedule

It takes tremendous self-discipline to build a highly successful business, especially when you work from home. Often when people are struggling, I have them track their time use for one week. Then we rate their time effectiveness based on a simple formula. This is always a shocking exercise as they see how much time is not being used effectively. Time is a powerful energy and you need to use it as wisely as possible. Look at your life obligations and set a regular work schedule. I don’t care if you work in the early morning or late at night. You need to have time put aside where everyone understands you are not to be disturbed because you are working. You need a minimum of 20 hours a week. If you’re working less your progress will be slower.

Priority based work

Make sure that the minute you sit down at your desk you immediately start working on your priority tasks—the ones that will generate money or leads. If you slip into checking and responding to emails, surfing the web or jumping up to do the laundry, you will find your work time gone with no real progress made. Set a timer to remind you of how much time has passed. Set incremental goals—maybe every 30 to 60 minutes. Do this for one week and you’ll be amazed at the difference.

Outsource

You are not an island and you are impeding your own growth if you try doing everything yourself. For just a few hundred dollars a month you can outsource many marketing tasks like e-mail marketing, website updates and social media. This takes hours of rote work off your plate so you can work on getting more leads, creating new and better products and services and serving more clients. Within a few months of hiring my first virtual assistant my income grew substantially. Now I have a virtual team and they’re worth every penny I pay them.

If you think you can’t afford help, you need to change the way you think. No business can be built without an investment. You need to invest in your business if you want clients to invest in you.

Get the right support

Working in a very small or homebased business can be isolating. Before I started my coaching business I owned 3 other businesses. One of them involved being with people each day and managing a staff of fifteen. It was fun to be with people each day and I was quite surprised by the strangeness of living in a virtual world.

Since we no longer gather around the water cooler and have lunch with our colleagues, we need to create other types of support. There are 3 ways you can get the support you need so you can brainstorm and stay on track and avoid feeling isolated.

• Accountability buddy

Find someone who is in a similar situation and form a team to hold each other accountable to reaching weekly goals. Be sure this person is motivated, non-judgmental and has a positive attitude so you get the uplifting support you need.

• Mastermind

Form a small mastermind group with a few other solo-preneurs. Set a structure for checking in, setting goals and holding each other accountable.

• Get a coach or mentor

Finding the right coach can not only help you know exactly which actions to take to fast track your business, you will also be held accountable and skip a lot of struggle. Make sure you chose someone who has already achieved the success you want and make sure you resonate with this person’s philosophy. Also be sure they have had similar success with other clients.

Follow these simple suggestions and you’ll be able to live the lifestyle you want and dramatically increase your income.

If you let yourself be drawn into the drama that a problem seems to create you become emotionally invested in it. When a problem comes up suddenly and unexpectedly its easy to immediately become fearful or angry and go into reaction mode. Most people try to avoid problems at all costs because they disrupt our plans and daily routines.

But problems are inevitable and it’s only how we perceive them that can make a difference. Let me share a personal example. Last weekend my air conditioning went out on the second floor of my home. Now you must understand that unfortunately-

1) It’s over 90 degrees and humid almost every day in August in North Carolina
2) My bedroom and office are both on the second floor.

Within a few hours the inside temperature had reached 94 degrees! When my trusted AC repairman arrived he informed me sadly that the whole unit was shot and that it would cost almost $5000 to replace it. Now at this point I had a crucial choice to make. I could really resist this situation, wailing and moaning, or I could accept it as just a part of home ownership. I started practicing gratitude. I’m grateful to have air conditioning at all and even more grateful to own a business that provides me with an income where I can afford to repair it. I’m not saying this was easy. I had much better things to do with that money. But I decided not to let it ruin my mood or my weekend. Even though it meant I had to sleep on the sofa and set up a makeshift office in my dining room for several days until the repair was complete.

The challenge became a bit tougher though, when my computer crashed the next day and I found myself sweating in my office on the phone with my computer guru trying to fix the problems. There were moments when I was gritting my teeth. But I just kept reminding myself that I had a choice as to

1) how to react to the situation
2) how to let this situation affect my mood, my emotions and my actions

I spent years letting myself get sucked into the drama of unexpected problems, allowing small problems to put me in a funk which prevented me from being at my best in my business or relationships. But I learned that I was only cheating myself.  How about you?

Do you allow problems to foster anger or fear that lingers? Anger means we’re resisting the reality of the problem and we won’t be able to deal with it with a clear and totally rational mind. Fear means we may do all we can to avoid that type of problem again, even if it means holding ourselves back, limiting our opportunities or avoiding risk. Either way it can be a losing situation.

What problems are holding you back? I see many people held back by what they perceive as money problems. Their perception that there is never enough prevents them from taking powerful control over their money and investing it where it will really pay off in their business. Other people will compromise their values in a relationship to avoid conflict and further problems. All of this makes you smaller and drains you of energy. It robs you of your power to create the success you deserve.

Your business is where your passion and creativity allow you to not only make great money but to be of service to others. It’s where you step into your power. Problems will happen and you can’t avoid them. Handle them by detaching and taking a bird’s eye view of them from a distance. Ask yourself what you can learn from them. Refuse to get enmeshed in any emotional drama. And practice gratitude for what is working.

This is an important question because if your belief it that success and reaching your true potential equals cheating your partner and children of attention, then that belief creates a mindset that will cause you to procrastinate, make excuses and experience the frustration of stagnation in your business. There are many highly successful women and mompreneurs who have high quality life styles and 6-figure incomes. So the belief is false. It’s just another case of FEAR—False Evidence Appearing Real.

The impact of your success on your quality of life depends on whether or not you design and build a lifestyle business. That means that within the scope of your passion and skills you choose a business that accommodates your life the way you want to live it. Isn’t that one of the reasons you started a business? I show my clients how to plan their business around their life and how to avoid using their daily life commitments as an excuse for not working hard to build their business and achieving their biggest goals.

The key lies in planning a well-thought out business strategy. Ask yourself these soul searching questions to see if you’re heading in the right direction with your business.

• What do I want my daily and weekly life to look like?
• How many hours am I willing to devote entirely to my business each week?
• Does my business need to be mobile?
• How can I build dedicated vacation and family time into my schedule?
• Am I often using family commitments as an excuse to avoid working on my business?
• Do I fear that creating a really successful business will rob me of personal time?
• If so, how do I know this belief is true? Do I have absolute proof?
• Am I open to exploring new ways to run my business and to automate, outsource and systemize my business so I can work less and make more?
• Have I spoken to or mentored with women who do have a successful lifestyle business to gain insights into how I can accomplish the same?
• Am I serving anyone by thwarting my potential to serve many people through my talents, knowledge and skills?
• What would doubling or tripling my income mean to my family?

These are not easy questions. And you’ll really need to dig deep and be extremely honest with yourself to answer them. Consider writing the answers that come to you right away, then go back and add to each answer after you’ve thought more about it and observed your actions and thought patterns around these issues for a week or so.

This whole process is likely to take you outside your comfort zone and may have you uncovering some hidden truths. But every successful woman entrepreneur I know consistently steps outside her comfort zone. I set a goal to do so each year as I’m putting together my yearly business plan. And even though it’s not always easy, the pay off I get from expanding beyond my self imposed limits are always beyond exhilarating.

If you’re ready to discover the most powerful strategy for creating a wildly successful business that allows you the time you need to spend with your family, join me on August 16th for a free Coaching tele-class:
 
Your Personal Profit Process: One Powerful Strategy that will Turn Your Ideas and Knowledge into a Booming Business
Register and Learn More Here.

Most of my clients are small and solo business owners who sell their information, expertise and knowledge and do not need the type of business plan you’d take to the bank to get a loan or funding. If that’s you, then there’s an easier, faster way to lay a powerful foundation for a profitable, sustainable business and a comfortable 6-figure income. Yes, you need a strategic business plan, but because the idea conjures up an intimidating image of a 100-page document filled with months of research, I’ve created something so much simpler and more effective. I call it my 6-Figure Business Design Model ®. It’s powerful and it works.

A Business Design helps you plan a long term powerful strategy for your business and stops you from just offering random products and services. It’s actually exciting to create and helps you take dreams and ideas and turn them into a profitable business. It also helps you move past selling time for dollars, which creates a self-imposed income ceiling, and instead builds a model where you create a personal profit process which includes passive income and the ability to help more people.

Let’s face it: you can be self-employed and just pay your bills each month, working harder than you ever did when you had a job–or you can become a real entrepreneur and build a little business engine that keeps on chugging even when you’re not around, and which creates the financial freedom that allows you to live life the way you want to. That’s what I do and you can too!

To create your business design you will need to work through a simple 8 step process that looks like this:

1) Find your PROFIT niche: this is the niche in your chosen market, industry, or area of knowledge where there are people with a burning problem, challenge or need to which you have a solution that they’re willing to pay for. It’s also a niche that isn’t flooded with direct competition and where you can find a place to position yourself as the expert.

2) Research: both what people are looking for in your market and what your competitors are doing. By doing simple keyword research you can determine what your potential customers are searching for, which means they’re actually telling you what you need to provide. This will help you avoid a common mistake business owners make of creating an information product or program that is difficult to sell.

Then you’ll want to determine which competitors are offering similar products and services, how successful they are and get a sense of pricing. This will help you learn what to offer, how to market, what marketing language to use, what to charge and much more.

3) Personal Profit Process: develop your own unique step-by-step approach for getting your clients to the results they most want. Rather than have a bunch of disjointed, unrelated products and programs, develop a process you can guide your clients through that flows and covers each and every step they need to take. Then you can create products based on different steps in the process and it will brand you and make you stand out.

4) Create a product funnel, product flow and pricing: create a series of products that evolve from your Personal Profit Process that range from giveaways and simple, inexpensive information products that involve little of your time, to more complex, higher priced solutions that involve more of your personal time and are more customized. All of these products need to flow from one to the other, so its easy to transition people to buy from you multiple times.

5) Product creation: Here’s where you create the basic products in your funnel. Start with the basics and add products as you begin to build a larger following. The idea is to create a product with a strategy in mind that it will logically connect to another product that your clients will need.

6) Create the plumbing: There’s a technical set up involved which includes creating marketing e-mails to send to prospects and subscribers, web pages, product preview audios or videos, shopping cart set up, and other marketing materials. If you rush into selling your products before you have all of this in place, you won’t get the results you want.

7) Design your marketing: Create a weekly marketing plan and be consistent. Your plan can include recruiting joint venture partners, preview tele-classes, press releases, social media, pay per click ads as well as speaking or phone sales. Design a combination that works best for your product, your market and your skill set. Building traffic to your product sales page is not that hard if you work on it every day.

The other crucial piece of your marketing design is copywriting. Once you get people to your web page if the copywriting doesn’t communicate the real value of your product you won’t convert those people to buyers. Copywriting is also crucial in emails or blog posts that you use to market your products and services.

8) Develop a conversion strategy: Once someone has signed up for your mailing list and expressed interest in your product, but hasn’t yet bought, how will you convert them to buyers? Your follow up process needs to include multiple steps where you build a relationship with your prospect and educate them about the great results they can get if they purchase and use your product or service. Make sure you don’t forget about this important step and plan it in advance.

In fact, being a cheapskate is being buzzed about everywhere. I’m not talking about the kind of person who rations shampoo, reuses tissues, or goes out to dinner with friends and hopes someone else will pick up the tab. Instead I’m referring to people who are conscious about how they spend their money, especially when it comes to their business.

Are you really in a cash crunch? There are some simple things you can do that will reduce your business budget and allow you to reallocate that money into marketing so you can grow your business. Here are a few money saving tips as well as ways to examine how you’re spending your money.

Website maintenance and hosting

I see so many people get ripped off when it comes to their websites because they just don’t know better. Make sure your website is designed in a Content Management System like Wordpress or Joomla so you can make simple changes like wording or adding photos or videos yourself and you won’t have to pay someone to do it, since the going rate is around $60 an hour. These systems are very user friendly and will save you a bundle.

When it comes to web hosting you should be paying under $10 a month (US dollars) for a simple website hosting account. You’re better off not hosting through your web designer but with a well-known dedicated web hosting company. Web designers often charge more and don’t always give you access. If you switch web designers or they are unavailable you may have trouble getting access to your business website.

Telephone service

Consider switching your business phones to VOIP, the Internet based phone service. It could save you hundreds of dollars a year. I know solo home based business that even use Magic Jack at under $20 a year!

Technology

If the computer, cell phone and software you use still work just fine, you don’t need to replace them with the latest version. Only switch when you absolutely need to do so. Do you need web access on your cell phone if you work at home all day? Do you need a new operating system just because it’s available? Advertisers would have you believe you do and so would your kids, but don’t fall for it.

On the other hand, do invest in automation software if it will make your business more efficient, save you precious time or expense on outsourced help. Examples would be using an e-mail marketing program, affiliate management software, database program, scheduling program, or customer service software.

Office supplies

One of the most annoying expenses is replacing printer cartridges. You end up paying much more for the cartridges than you paid for the printer. Try using refillable cartridges. Plus did you know that certain fonts actually use more ink? Really, I’m not kidding!  _________________

Don’t buy office supplies you might need. Only buy what you actually need. Before buying pens, post-its or paper, check different stores for the best prices so you can save money consistently. Save paper by printing on both sides when possible. Also send documents electronically when possible rather than printing and faxing or mailing. It’s incredible how much this can save you.

Marketing expense

Don’t be a cheapskate when it comes to the marketing materials your prospects see, like your website, business card, blog. Get a skilled professional graphic designer or web designer to create your branding and you’ll come across as an experienced professional.

But with the vast opportunities available to market at practically no cost on the Internet and using social media, you’d be crazy not to take advantage. For a very small investment you can hire a trained virtual assistant to help you drive lots of highly targeted traffic right to your online door. I’ve seen small business owners spend hundreds of dollars a year on local networking groups that yielded no business rather than taking that money and spending it on something that will give them a measurable return on investment.

Spend 30 minutes going through your expenses and see where making some minor changes can save you money. And from now on, go ahead and be a cheapskate! Just don’t skimp where it counts.

Although the right processes and systems can make you very successful, you need to keep pushing yourself outside your comfort zone if you want to grow. Think bigger, and then act bigger. If you’re not feeling just a bit of fear, you’re probably operating in your safe zone. But your safe zone will soon get boring and your business will stagnate.

Realizing this was truly an “aha” moment for me, as I can be a creature of habit. Once I understood the importance of going beyond what’s cozy and comfortable I vowed to do it each year and I keep that in mind when doing my yearly business planning. That has led me to take some bold actions that have literally doubled my income. So getting outside your comfort zone is a crucial business strategy. Just starting a business took courage so you just need to keep up your courage.

This is a good philosophy to apply to all aspects of your life. Getting outside of your money comfort zone is often another breakthrough process. If you start to feel comfortable making just enough to pay your bills or if you are afraid to invest in a coach, mentor or necessary training, taking that leap can change everything…and quickly.

Pushing the envelope a bit is really about living life to its fullest. You can get outside your comfort zone with relationships, food, exercise, travel or pretty much anything where you’ve settled into a rut or habit. It will put a bit of spice in your life and open up a whole new world of possibilities.

Get started on this today. Make a list of goals or ideas you’ve dreamed of implementing in your business, but haven’t because you’re afraid. Then make each of them just a bit grander. Want to increase your income by 50% next year? How about doubling it! Do you want to get direct access to some highly successful people who could really help you? Plan a way to meet them in person at a live event or invite them to lunch if they’re local. Do you have a strong desire to write a book? What are you waiting for? Create a writing schedule and stick to it, even it it’s only 20 minutes a day.

First you commit to moving outside your comfort zone. Next decide what that will mean and what specific goals you’ll achieve. Then create a plan and most importantly you ACT on it as soon as possible. Just imagine what your business and your life will look like a year from now if start on this today.

I’m excited to announce my new LIVE fall event:
The Path to Success Breakthrough Intensive.
 
It will be a profound, business transforming 2-day event to be held in an elegant private club in Raleigh NC. It’s a bit hush-hush now until the plans are finalized, but tickets will be limited to no more than 30 people. I’m keeping it intimate so I can offer more personal access. So reserve these dates: November 12th and 13th.

While in New York, my daughter wanted to see the Broadway revival of West Side Story. Since I performed in musical theater in New York for years and love this musical as one of the all time greats, I was happy to take her. Unfortunately we were disappointed. In the original production the “gang members” were very tough, earthy dancers who really made you feel the gritty, difficult lives they lived. In this production, the gang members seemed more like prep school boys. The lead character, Maria, was played by an Argentinean woman with both a mediocre singing voice and acting skills. It was hard to even hear many of her lines. Finally the director risked taking the liberty of delivering a portion of both lyrics and dialogue in Spanish. Yes, some characters are supposed to be Spanish speaking, but the majority of the audience missed key dialogue and lyrics if they didn’t’ understand Spanish. Obviously ticket holders were going to compare the revival with the original and with the movie, both of which were stellar. Falling short was not an option.

New York is sometimes like a small town. Word travels fast and word of mouth sells tons of tickets. With poor directorial choices and poor casting the result was a theatre that was one third empty. Enough said.

Marketing lesson:

1. Don’t underestimate word of mouth and viral marketing.
2. It’s better to under promise and over deliver.

Also while in New York I had dinner with an old friend from my college days. His company, located on Broadway in mid-town Manhattan, designs, manufactures and sells novelty fabrics. He’s been in business for more than 20 years and has achieved impressive success. The company currently sells to giants like Walmart and some of the top fabric chains. In observing his business over the years I’ve noted that his company specializes in one category of fabric only. It’s their specialty niche where they are considered experienced and knowledgeable experts. I’m sure it must have been tempting to consider branching out into other categories, but by staying specialized they have achieved sustainable success, a stellar reputation and a wonderful lifestyle.

Marketing lesson:

1. Find a profitable niche where you can become known as the go-to expert. Make sure it’s not too broad, yet also not so small that there are too few customers.
2. Being a generalist or jack-of-all-trades never works. People want to pay for expertise and experience in a specific area. You can’t be everything to everyone.

Try observing the companies you do business with. What makes them successful? What changes would make your experience with them better? I see companies make glaring mistakes that seem so obvious yet they go unresolved. To avoid finding your small business in the same situation, take a step away and take a totally honest and impartial look at what is working and what isn’t. Ask clients or subscribers for honest feedback through surveys and in person. Sometimes the most minor changes can have a huge impact on the results you get.

Yet many small business owners, particularly solo and home based business owners, think they need to figure it out all on their own, or they think they don’t have the money needed to invest in the help they need. Notice I said invest. If you have the right expert or mentor working with you, and if you follow through on what you learn from them, you will make much more back than you spent and you will increase your income so much faster.

Many years ago I was a corporate trainer. Larger companies know how crucial training is and that’s why they invest in it regularly. Successful entrepreneurs continuously invest in training and mentoring because they see the necessity to be continually “sharpening the saw”.

The most important reason you need training, coaching or mentoring is so you can master skills like marketing, mindset, pricing, financial strategy, sales, business strategy and managing. If you’re solo this is just as crucial or you’ll be stuck selling time for dollars and you’ll struggle to achieve financial freedom… or even to take a vacation! So what type of help do you need?

Here are some the best learning options currently available for you, followed by some of the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Private coaching

Advantage

Good business coaches are in demand because coaching is the most focused, customized way to reach your goals fast, increase your income, save time, money and struggle. It also boosts your productivity, since someone is holding you accountable, guiding your actions and keeping you focused and motivated. A good coach will help you make the fastest progress, but you need to be sure you resonate with a coach, that they are a seasoned and successful entrepreneur and that they have successfully coached others before hiring them. And most importantly, you need to follow through on all of the action steps you’re being asked to take.

Disadvantage

This type of coaching requires a bigger investment of time and money, but the payoff is bigger.

Group coaching

Advantage

Group coaching works well for those who are at the beginning stages and need more general help, or who need help with one particular skill that is the focus of the group coaching program. Group coaching allows you to interact with an expert coach as well as other members of the group which can be a wonderful support system. Also, because it is a group setting, the investment is usually much lower.

Group coaching mastermind groups also work well if you are already successful and want to participate in a small, high level mastermind with a few other successful people and learn higher level strategies from your expert coach. You should consider the type of help you want, whether you’ll be motivated by working within a group setting as well as the specific type of help you need.

Disadvantage

You won’t get the level of customization of personal help that you get with private coaching.

Web based training or Home Study Programs

Includes Webinars, CD’s, Webcasts, audios, tele-seminars, or downloadable lessons…any type of training that can be viewed on your computer or printed out.

Advantage

There is a huge array of possibilities from which to choose. Some web based training or home study programs are minimally interactive, while others are simply viewed by the participant, who then completes a written or online follow-up assignment. Since the training can be viewed multiple times, you’ll master more of the material than with one time live workshops or single tele-classes. Convenience is a big factor, since you can learn at any time and at your own pace.

Disadvantage

Web based training as well as home study is somewhat generic and impersonal, as it is often developed to appeal to a wider audience, rather than customized to meet your specific needs. It is often not as thorough as other types because the length is rarely more than 60 minutes for each segment, although multi-unit courses are available. If you consider interaction with others to be important, or if you have trouble focusing and following through without anyone holding you accountable, this might not be for you.

Live workshop and events

Advantage

Nothing can beat the impact of a live workshop or event for “aha” moments, motivation, and for forming valuable new business relationships. It’s important to pick events that are led by experts you respect, who you want to meet and learn from, and where you know you will meet people more successful than you are, since these are the people you want in your corner. I speak and attend many live events and it’s had a huge impact on my success.

Disadvantage

Time involved, travel time and costs (but well worth the price). It’s often more expensive than several of the previous options. And you’ll want to consider finding a way to continue working on and implementing what you learn at the live workshop so it has a lasting impact.

Take an honest look at where your business is now and where you want it to be and make a commitment to get past the fear, take a leap of faith and invest in getting the help you need!

Just at the point when your frustration level is high because you’ve been working hard, doing all the “right” things and yet still not making the income you want, you may feel like quitting. But that may be just the point at which you’re about to reach the boiling point. Sticking with it for a little longer or trying one new approach can catapult you to a whole new level where you start to easily make more money than ever before.

There are times when you need to stop doing what you’re doing and change directions. When you’ve tried to market a product or service and no one is buying you absolutely need to take a good hard look at the product itself or your marketing to see what’s not working. However, in many cases a few tweaks and a bit more persistence is all you need. Try asking yourself what strategies you’d be using right now, and what actions you’d be taking if you already had a million dollar business. Wouldn’t you be thinking bigger? I see people all the time who settle for so much less than they’re worth and it’s keeping them stuck. Here are some tips that will help you move from stuck to soaring.

Create a Product Funnel from your Personal Process

A common mistake that I see often is when you create a single product, like a $27 e-book or a $19 a month membership program and think you now have a business. You need to create a branded process that you teach your clients or take them through that will move them from problem to solution. Take this process and create a series of products and services that go from the most basic information about your process (lowest priced) to a very in depth, hands on solution (highest priced). Now you have a funnel of products, so that once someone buys from you, they will want to become a fan and buy from you again and again. Having just one or two products is a dead end street, since buyers come in and quickly exit your pipeline so you’re stuck constantly trying to find new buyers.

Push Yourself outside Your Comfort Zone

What do you see other successful people in your market doing that you secretly want to do? What action could you take that’s bold and a little scary? Well it’s time to take that action. If you continue doing only what is comfortable and safe you’ll stay stuck. Maybe you need to get out from behind your computer and do a live workshop. Maybe you need to pick up the phone and start calling prospects and talking with them about your services. Maybe you need to master some aspect of technology that you know would increase your income, but that you’ve avoided out of fear. Or maybe you need to stop agonizing over every small detail, give up perfection and increase your speed of implementation. Every time I’ve moved outside my comfort zone or I’ve pushed one of my clients to do so, amazing things have happened. This is how you put the message out there that you’re playing a bigger game. You’ll feel much more empowered and confident that you can have what you want.

Make Strategy and Planning a Priority

Without strategy any action you take in your business is random and random just doesn’t work. Every marketing activity and product you create needs to be part of a strategy. Whether you’re doing a live presentation, spending time doing social media, promoting a tele-class, or introducing a product you need to create a flow chart to see how you can position your actions to get the biggest return on investment. For example, that could mean planning to introduce a new product by planning out and writing all of your marketing messages and activities with a clear timeline, adding an up-sell to your product, and planning how you’ll market to people who are interested but don’t buy immediately. Every marketing activity needs to have a call to action and that needs to be planned before you do the marketing. Marketing is not a passive activity. Whether you’re sending people to a blog post you’ve written or sending them to a website landing page to learn about a product or sign up for your mailing list, you need to have a plan. For each action you take in your business ask yourself “why am I doing this” and “what is my ultimate goal”?

Think bigger, act bigger, have a strategy and a plan. Just these simple changes can move your business to the boiling point!