SoloSavvy Blog for Solo Entrepreneurs

Solopreneurs: Are You Losing Potential Clients?

Tracey Lawton — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:47:33 +0000

If you find yourself missing out on potential clients, contacts falling through the cracks, or not following up in a timely manner then your problem is simply a lack of an efficient contact management system!

So let me ask you:

1. Do you have a record of each of your clients/colleagues contact data, i.e. name, address, email, website, phone number etc.?

2. Are you following up efficiently and effectively when a potential client enquires about your services/programs?

3. Do you have a specific process in place for handling new client enquiries?

If you’ve answered NO to one or more of these questions, then you don’t have a suitable contact management system in place.

The good news…

This can easily be rectified! With a proper contact management system in place you will be able to:

Keep a note of clients, potential clients, and colleagues contact information.
Easily and effectively follow-up with a prospect.
Locate critical client contact information quickly and easily.
Build your business.

Sometimes the simplest contact management can be all you need so that you’re not letting potential clients slip through the cracks and you’re following up in a timely manner. When deciding on the most suitable contact management system for your business, there are three basic choices:

1. If you’re currently using Outlook it comes with its own contact address book, and Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 and above comes with Business Contact Manager. Outlook actually makes a good ‘command central’ for your business as not only does it store all your crucial contact management data, but you can also manage your emails, To Do list, tasks, and schedule follow-ups so you won’t lose an important contact again due to lack of follow-up!

2. You can purchase stand-alone contact management software such as ACT! This is a very robust contact management system; the only downside – you can’t use it to manage your emails!

3. You can use an online contact management system – some of which are free. This is a good choice, particularly if you want to be able to access your contact data from any PC, anywhere. And if you are working with a Virtual Assistant it’s very easy for them to maintain and update your contact data too – they simply log in!

Which one to use depends on your level of expertise and which one will work best for YOU and YOUR BUSINESS.

Don’t let your business suffer due to an inefficient contact management system. Follow my tips above to choose a system that is right for YOUR business

The Solution to Working Mothers Stress - Relaxing on the Weekend

Kim DeYoung — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:45:29 +0000

Did you enjoy the recent three-day weekend? Weekends are sometimes hard on moms. It’s hard to let go of our to-do list and spend a weekend or even just a few hours really relaxing. You’d like to sit and read a novel, take a bubble bath or play an endless game of Monopoly with your 9-year old.

But… if you’re like me there’s always something you really should do, or what you could call “working mothers stress” especially if you work from home. You’re already mentally gearing up for next week and thinking of ways to get ahead—maybe it’s catching up on laundry, getting a head start on your next newsletter or responding to last week’s emails.

It’s easy to give into what you “should” do but if you recognized the significant payoff that relaxing provides, perhaps you’d do it more often…

The truth is, the problem-solving part of your brain functions best during unstructured time. So when you’re engaged in “mindless” activities—taking a nature walk, listening to music, getting a pedicure — you’ll often come upon solutions that your “busier” mind doesn’t focus on. J.K. Rowling says the premise for the Harry Potter books popped into her mind as she was gazing out a train window. I know for myself, my best Metromom ideas have come to me during exercise or meditative time.

If improving your mental sharpness isn’t motivating enough, carving out regular times to relax also provides health benefits. When you’re constantly busy your body finds itself stuck in high gear which can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease and a suppressed immune system. Doesn’t it always seem like you catch a cold after a particularly stressful week?

Another perk of ditching your to-do list, is how your family benefits. Studies show that children of parents who are constantly racing from one task to another end up being stressed themselves. Our children feel our energy — the positive and the negative. Allowing yourself time to relax helps your whole family relax and enjoy the weekend together.

When you stop and think about it, how often do you really get ahead on your week by cramming too much into your weekend?

Relaxing doesn’t just happen. Like anything that you’re committed to bringing into your life, you have to plan for it. For me, I have to set aside chunks of time to do nothing since my natural tendency is to perpetually stay busy. This is especially true if you work from home. I’ll share some tips in an upcoming post that I use and some of my work-at-home mom friends use to make sure we relax each and every weekend.

Finding Time for What Matters Most

Paula Eder — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:41:24 +0000

Finding time to clarify what you value, and then put those values into practice in your everyday life is an ongoing challenge. Yesterday we looked at the impact that our time choices about the internet can have on other things we value – like family time.

Making these time choices consciously, rather than by default, is an important step toward finding time for what matters most.

But what does matter most? This morning, let’s step back and take a look at how clarifying what we value can help us clarify our time choices. In a recent article titled Finding Time by Championing Your Values – 3 Essential Steps to Reclaim Your Time at EzineArticles.com I explored a 3-pronged approach to help you get your values and your time choices into better alignment.

First, take some time to sit with yourself and identify what you most value. One great avenue for doing this is to visualize your ideal day. Be as specific as you can – the more detail you include, the easier it is to follow your “map.” I suggest that you revisit this exercise fairly often – and at least seasonally. Your ideal day will evolve as you do – and it’s important to keep it fresh and in sync with where you actually are!

Next, look at your actual day. Be factual and dis-invite your inner critic (who may be very eager to help with this part of the exercise)! What do you typically do? Where do you get bogged down? What goes smoothly? Be as specific as possible – each small moment is important. Pay particular attention to your feelings as you do this.

Your third task is to put your two days side by side, and identify places where you can bring elements of your ideal day into your real day. It’s important to be concrete and realistic here, so that you do not set yourself up for failure. Recognize that change can be a challenge, and some changes may take more than one step. Start small and build toward success!

Finding time to live your values is one of the most rewarding time management tasks you can undertake. As you make your time choices more consciously, you’ll find the time for what matters most – guaranteed.

How Marathons Can Help Your Business

Michele Pariza Wacek — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:35:12 +0000

Musings from the Marathon (and How it Can Help Your Business)

I just returned from San Diego where I walked my third marathon. It took me 6.5 hours. (I’m not a runner, I’m a walker, and that’s averaging between a 14- and 15-minute mile.) Now if you know anything about marathons, you’ll know that I’m never going to make the Boston marathon with that time.

In fact, I was beaten by an 86-year-old woman from South Carolina (we were neck and neck for awhile — she pulled away when I stopped for a bathroom break, beat me by 5 minutes) by a man dressed in a banana suit, by naked man (he whipped off his shorts when he crossed the finish line, although it’s probably not fair to compare him to me as he definitely had less wind resistance than I had) and a bunch of guys dressed as Elvis.

My point is if I was doing marathons to win, I would probably be in the depths of despair this week. Lucky for me, I do marathons for other reasons that have nothing to do with speed and everything to do with perseverance.

In fact, I think every business owner and entrepreneur should complete a marathon at least once in their life. No, not because I want partners to share in the torture and agony, but for the same reasons why I do. Let me explain.

I’ve come to the conclusion that nature has intended for the human body to only travel about 20 miles at any one time. I’ve decided this based on both science and my own experiences.

Now, I’m not a scientist but here’s my understanding of what’s going on when you walk a marathon. Your body only has around 2000 calories of ready energy it can use at any one time. How long does it take you to run out of 2000 calories? Oh, about 20 miles. After 20 miles, your body starts attacking your muscle to use as fuel (your body can’t burn fat on its own, it can only access the fat through burning something easier, such as carbohydrates or muscle).

At the same time, the hormones your body produces when you run (the ones that are responsible for the “runner’s high”) are used up. When that happens, the natural pain killer that’s part of the runner’s high also disappears, so now you feel every bit of the pain your muscles are going through.

In other words, somewhere between mile 20 and 24, your body runs out of ready energy and starts attacking your muscles and also runs out of the hormones that give you extra energy, stamina and pain relief. There’s a term for this you might have heard. It’s called “hitting the wall.” And if you’re going to hit the wall, you’re going to hit it somewhere between mile 20 and 24.

As someone who has smashed head first into said wall, I can tell you it’s not pretty. You can get a second wind at mile 12, 16, even 18. There’s no second wind at mile 24.

During every marathon I’ve done, there comes a time where nothing helps. Nothing. Everything hurts. Everything. You’re exhausted. Every muscle in your body is screaming for you to stop. You’re keeping your legs moving on sheer grit and determination alone. There’s nothing else left.

The only thing that even comes close to helping during this time is the people cheering on the sideline. The ones near the end yelling “You can do it, you’re almost there.” (Note to spectators, this is the time to lie. Tell the runners or walkers or limpers they’re almost there or the next mile marker is around the corner, even if the next mile marker is actually around the corner, up a hill and a half-mile away. You need anything you can grab on to at this time.)

So for all you spectators, yes your cheering really DOES help. Don’t let our grumpy expressions fool you. We’re hanging on to what you’re saying for dear life.

(On another note, the neighbors who live between mile 15 and 16 who every year buy a gazillion oranges, spend hours cutting them up and then MORE hours standing on the street handing them to us as we go by, I only have one thing to say to you — I’m leaving you in my will.)
Okay, so my hypothesis is the human body is only supposed to walk or run for 20 to 24 miles. And a marathon is 26.2 miles (and yes, that .2 is VERY important — that .2 of a mile is harder than the first 20). So what that means is you are literally pushing yourself past your body’s limits for at least 2.2 miles.

In fact, that’s why I think marathons ARE 26.2 miles. Because they push past your physical boundaries.

I suspect this was the discussion back when marathons first came up. The Marathon God was sitting around with the other Greek Gods in Mt Olympus and the conversation went something like this. “Maybe a marathon should be 20.4 miles.” “No, no, that’s still within their body’s limits.” “Okay, so how about 28.8?” “No, that’s too far. Too many people will drop out or die and that defeats the purpose.” “So what about 26.2 miles?” “Perfect, just far enough to push past their boundaries and not so far that they give up or die.”

So walking marathons is about pushing past boundaries. If you can push past your body’s physical limits with your mind, then you should have no problems pushing past other boundaries with your mind, such as income boundaries or business growth boundaries.

After all, you know it’s possible to build a multi-million-dollar (or billion-dollar) business from scratch. You’ve seen other people do it. And after you walk a marathon, you’ll know you can push past boundaries because you’ve just done it. So therefore, now you know you have the capability to push past whatever boundaries you’ve set for yourself. You’ll have physical, tangible proof of it. (And they even give you a medal when you finish.)

And that, my friends, is why I think every business owner and entrepreneur should walk or run a marathon at least once in their life.

Fuel Your Day With Positive Emotions

Eva Gregory — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:51:56 +0000

You must always pay attention to how you are feeling…all day long. Checking in with your emotions once or twice a day is not enough. In the Law of Attraction, your thoughts are your engine and your emotions are the fuel to get you where you want to go.

Yes, it is simple. Will this take practice? Yes, more than you think. Your prosperous results are worth the few seconds (literally) it will take to have present moment awareness and then shift the way you feel if it’s not good.

Fuel UP, baby!

What’s Your Hook? The USP Revisited

Nancy Marmolejo — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:44:07 +0000

The reason Twitter has taken off is pretty easy to figure out: with more and more information coming at us each day, quick and easy nuggets of communication are becoming the preferred method. This is trickling down to how we speak about our businesses and what skills and results people associate us with.

The majority of my clients are experienced business owners, many of them marketing experts and highly skilled business coaches. They’re not newbies to online marketing and they’re masterful at what they do.

But they come to me needing survival skills. Social media is making their heads spin and they’re feeling like the freshman class of Web 2.o.

Here’s a common dilemma I hear almost daily:

How do you distill years of experience, training, and earned wisdom into a micro-sound bite that engages prospects and attracts clients?

You need what I call your “hook”.

Not a gimmick, even though I think the musical Gypsy’s “You Gotta Have a Gimmick” does have some good ideas to build upon (bumping a Christmas light on with your hips is optional).

Think of something that will make people easily remember you and create a hunger for the results you deliver. Cleverness is always a good way to go, which means you add a dose of original creativity to the mix.

I’ve been really impressed lately with Lisa Sasevich of www.TheInvisibleClose.com and I’m using her as an example for many of my clients.

Lisa could have been yet another muddled sales professional out there trying to get everyone to learn how to sell.

What sets her apart is that she took her brilliance- which is soft selling- and applied it to getting results in a specific situation- speaking from the stage.

She calls her technique “The Invisible Close” and teaches entrepreneurs how to “sell from the stage without sounding salesy”.

I think what she’s doing is brilliant because she’s helping to break the boring cookie-cutter mold that people get into. And every time I turn around someone I know is now working with her so they can convert more sales during their talks- so obviously she’s onto a good thing and people are responding!

Think about this hook thing.

Take your brilliance.

Apply it to a particular situation.

Connect it to results.

If your brain is frying over this, and you’re eagerly working to find an answer, you can schedule a Visibility Strategy Session with me.

We’ll work together on your “hook” then find how to use Web 2.0 to get the word out.

Messages are getting shorter and shorter while our knowledge is getting broader and broader. A great “hook” is what you need to attract leads and engage prospective clients.

Is Your Inner Fire Stoked?

Hazel Palache — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:36:43 +0000

“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” -Albert Schweitzer

We all need to be doing what we are passionate about and love each day. If we’re not happy to get out of bed in the morning because we’re excited about the day ahead then something needs to be changed. Usually it’s the way we are thinking however sometimes that can be solved by just talking to a friend, a colleague, your partner or maybe your coach.

From time to time we might feel tired and the fire gets dampened however always remember you have a choice, it doesn’t have to stay this way. Take back your power, stoke the fire and keep moving forward.

What I Learned in Video School

Stacey Mayo — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:35:05 +0000

As you know I attended Video Magnetism School recently. Here are a few things I learned:

Getting a video done trumps doing it perfect every time - thank goodness for that
The light source should be in front of you and catch the light in your eyes
Catching the right light outdoors can be tricky until you figure out the best time of day to shoot

Flip cameras are awesome - great quality for a low price and includes basic editing software - much better than my webcam The new flip Ultra II has a bigger screen and I really like that
Creating content is easy and you can easily create a series of 5 videos in less than and hour and I did - woo hoo! More on that later.
And much more…

In case you are curious, here is the link to my intro video www.balancedliving.com/the-dream-queen/ that I placed on my website. It is not perfect, but it conveys a message and it is done.

Are Your Gifts Being Used to Their Fullest?

Helen Graves — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:40:23 +0000

The people I attract in my business span a wide range of services. You may coach business leaders to a more people-centered vision, or help parents create more loving relationships with their kids, or offer holistic health solutions to cancer survivors, or lead creative women to more fulfilling lives, or you may have some other calling altogether.

But what’s true for each of you is that in your heart of hearts, you know you’re here on this planet to impact other people’s lives with your special brand of transformation.

However, along with that big, loving heart and that big, inspired vision usually comes an aversion to selling. Most of us are never taught how to integrate service with sales.

So the vision doesn’t get played out fully – and the heart yearns for more.

It’s time to come to terms with the apparent contradiction between selling and being of service. Because it isn’t real. It’s just a little voice in your head that tells you to stay small and safe.

Here’s what IS true:

Your gifts are wasted if people are walking away from your selling conversations without hiring you because it means they’re walking away with a problem you could have helped them solve.

Here’s what else is true:

YOU get to decide whether you’re going to listen to that little voice of doubt and fear. Or if you’re going to accept that the Universe knew what it was doing when it entrusted you with your particular passion and gifts.

Those gifts are there to be shared. That can’t happen to the extent you dream of until you learn, once and for all, how to blend selling with integrity.

Because if you’re not selling, you’re not transforming lives.

Surprise Your Clients

Marty Marsh — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:33:58 +0000

Everyone loves a surprise and you can certainly delight your clients and prospects if you surprise them once in a while.

If you’ve been building a mailing list that includes the regular postal address for your clients and prospects it is very easy to send them a surprise. (Email just doesn’t have the same effect.)

Some ideas: a gift certificate during the off-season, a useful premium with your name on it (like a pen or bookmark), a greeting card, a thank you note, a birthday card, an anniversary card, a gift card, candy, brownies, goodies of all kinds.

Since they haven’t asked for this and haven’t “earned” it through some other kind of program, the recipient will be surprised and delighted.

What can you do that will surprise and delight your clients and prospects?