Identifying your ideal client and your niche market is the basic foundation upon which every successful business is built. Below you will find 7 tips that are guaranteed to improve your business if you apply them.
Tip 1: Understand What Your Ideal Client Really WANTS
One of the biggest delusions that most small business owners make is the belief that everyone is my client. Not true! In fact when you try to market to everyone, you end up marketing to no one.
An additional belief that many small business owners have is that knowing the specific demographic information, such as age, sex, marital status, zip code, etc. is adequate knowledge in knowing who my ideal client or niche market is. This is also not true.
This type of demographic information only tells us the type of client that has a need for your product or service. You don’t want to be selling to a client that needs your product in as much as you want a client who has a want for your product or service. The distinction between needs and wants is huge and one that warrants some additional discussion. Continue reading →
are hosting a series of webinars specifically designed to skyrocket your revenue and flood your business with all the clients you want and can handle. Each webinar will focus on a very specific business growth fundamental, and most will include live interviews with actual small business owners just like you who used these fundamentals to dramatically grow their businesses. They will tell you exactly how they did it, and we’ll help you apply it to your business as well.
Check out the calendar of calls by clicking here and then register now to receive complimentary invitations to these weekly Webinars for the rest of 2009! (And if you miss one, you’ll still have access to the recording.)
It’s so interesting how people procrastinate. We received almost as many marketing tip submissions the day after the deadline as we did the whole 3 weeks prior…why do people wait? If you want to change your results you must change your actions. Check out this video to see if you still have a chance to get your submission in.
Here are 2 of the latest marketing tip submissions from our contest. You can get more tips, or enter your own for the chance to be published in our upcoming book ‘Small Business Marketing on a Milk Money Budget’ 365 Powerful, Cutting-Edge—and Affordable—Marketing Tactics
Every Small Business Owner Needs to Know. Watch this video and find out!
Let’s face it, with everything that’s going on in business today getting some FREE marketing and publicity would be pretty cool don’t you think? Well, here’s your chance!
Get connected with other entrepreneurs and small business owners by contributing to Small Business Marketing on a Milk Money Budget! Stepmom moveMiddle of Nowhere move This guidebook is full of free & low-cost marketing tips. Just click here to get started and learn about all the other prizes you could win for your business, like a social media make over or you own podcast!
or the 80/20 rule, John explains that in order to grow your revenues and profits you CANNOT allocate the same amount of time to all of your business activities.
“Suppose your business has 50 different activities, such as sales, marketing, operations, finance, research, customer service and so on. According to the Pareto Principle, 20 percent of those activities will generate 80 percent of your revenues. Conversely, 80 percent of those activities will generate only 20 percent of your revenues. Doing the math shows that 10 out of the 50 activities will produce four-fifths of all the income your business generates.
Now, assume that your business takes in $100,000 a month. According to the Pareto Principle, 10 of your 50 activities would account for $80,000 of your monthly revenue, which works out to $8,000 per activity. Conversely, 40 of the activities would produce only $20,000 each month, which pencils out to a paltry $500 per activity. Sixteen times 500 equals 8,000, so your top 10 revenue-producing activities are 16 times more effective than the bottom 40.
Suppose you took it even further and moved the 80/20 ratio to 90/10, so that only 10 percent of your activities produced 90 percent of your revenues. That would make you 81 times more effective than you currently are. Merely by focusing your time and attention on the five or ten activities that have the highest impact on your business, you can increase your revenues and income by 16 to 81 times!
, and you can also email me for an accompanying activity worksheet so you can start implementing this strategy and growing your revenues by 16 times right now!! spencer@worksmartla.com
You’ve heard the saying, ‘treat something like a hobby, it will pay you like a hobby’. If networking is going to be one of your strategies to growing your business - treat it like a strategy! Don’t be an amatuer…
BNI founder and chairman, Dr. Ivan Misner, leads the world’s largest referral organization for business owners, and professionals. It’s sole purpose is the referral network strategy.
The key to networking? You MUST set obtainable goals and objectives. Often times, people attending a networking event will set the objective of ‘what time am I going to leave…’ Well, your results will reflect that - so make a change! Be specific, put some measurable numbers to it…how many events will I attend per week, how many people am I going to meet, what type of contacts am I looking for.
In a recent interview with Dr. Ivan Misner, he reveals the top 10 traits of a master networker;
10. Dedicated to working in their network; be an expert and effectively work your network.
9. Sincerity; be completely sincere and connected with the people in your network.
8. Helpfulness; enact ‘givers gain’ or ‘the law of reciprocity, be willing to give before you receive.
Just this past Wednesday, as many Angelenos were heading home after a long days work, a select group of smart-minded LA small business owners gathered for the monthly O.N.E. (OneCoach Networking Event), which was once again held at the inspiring entrepreneurial work space of BLANKSPACES, designed and owned by Jerome Chang. Continue reading →
At the recent BNI International Conference in Los Angeles, almost one-thousand small business owners gathered to learn new revenue generating strategies, network with other like-minded entrepreneurs and create strategic relationships geared towards growing their business.
The special guest presenter, Brian Tracy, spoke on business building topics such as doubling your income and achieving financial independence. And as much respect as I have for the brilliance that Mr. Tracy brings to the business and sales world, I couldn’t help but think that he was not presenting any new ground breaking material…there was no rabbit in the hat, no magic blue pill…though as I looked around the room, all I saw was big eyed optimists looking for the ‘Answer’ to solve their problems, to get them focused, to generate more business and money than they could ever imagine. And as I continued to listen to Mr. Tracy present the importance of how the 80/20 rule relates to your daily activity and the overall results you are getting in your business, I noticed a strange act among the small business owning participants. In unison, they were nodding their heads up and down, they were taking notes, they were turning to the person next to them to say things like; ‘yes, he’s right’, or ’so true’. Now I understood. It wasn’t the fact that the information was not new. It was the unfortunate reality that small business owners are NOT doing what they are supposed to be doing on a daily basis, to generate the desired results that they truly want in their life and their business. The average small business owner is overwhelmed, unfocused and wearing al the hats! They know all of this stuff, their just not doing it.
What does this mean?
Well sure, it means that to increase revenues and profits and grow your business, you cannot allocate the same amount of time to all of your business management activities.
And of course, the secret to running a successful business—whether you have $1 million or $1 billion in annual sales—is to find out what you should be doing and hire, barter or outsource people to do everything else.
But this information alone is useless…you must TAKE action! You have to DO something about it!! If you choose to download this worksheet, promise me you will commit to taking action.
That was the overall theme last weekend at the Mind, Marketing and Millions small business conference in Marina Del Rey, hosted by OneCoach International - in uncovering the 3 essential ways to grow any business and triple revenues;
The challenge most small business owners face, is that they don’t know what they don’t know - so they end up focusing on just one of these ways…can you guess which one? Yep, attracting more clients. Which turns out to be the most expensive way to grow a business.
This past weekend, while a majority of Angelinos were spending their time working IN their business - some 200+ LA small business owners filled the Marriott in Marina Del Rey to spend time working ON their business and tripling their revenues.
