Profiling Your Preferred Client:

Specificity is the name of the game!

It's a given that all business owners and entrepreneurs want to attract new business, but how many of them actually have a plan of action? As previously discussed on this blog and in articles on my website, having or creating a systematic approach will help you achieve more.

In developing such an approach, one of the first questions to ask yourself is: 'who do I want my future ideal client to be'? The more specific you can be with this, the more likely it will be you will attract that client towards you.

'You can't hit a target you can't see!'

A few facts to support the benefit of knowing your future preferred client(s):

• Knowing the person or the type of people you most want to meet, be introduced to, work with, and then have as your ideal client will give you the longest term, most sustainable source of business revenue.

• Statistically, 80% of the revenue we generate comes from 20% of our client base – yet many businesses instead market themselves to the 80% that will contribute only 20%.

(THIS IS TIRING, AND ULTIMATELY DEMOTIVATING!)

• Investing an hour or two over the next week to profile your ideal client will be time well spent.

Let me know what you will do NOW to highlight who you want your future ideal client to be.

SMART Business Goals

I have a phrase I usually use when training people to become coaches, and that's 'setting your client up to succeed', because if a coach can do that they also set themselves up to have a successful client.

As a business coach, I tend to work with successful business owners, executives and entrepreneurs who bring their goals to coaching. However, initial 'lightbulb' moments usually occur when clarifying how SMART those goals actually are.

To remind you, SMART goals are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Timed

So a great, positive and relatively quick way for you to start this bright new week is to spend 15 or so minutes bringing your top 1, 2, or 3 goals to mind and asking yourself, 'are they SMART'?

If they are, that's wonderful. And of they're not, commit to spending some quality time over the next couple of days to make sure they fulfill the SMART criteria and become truly SMART goals.

Believe me, the process doesn't take long, and you'll feel extra brilliant knowing you've begun the week by setting yourself up to succeed.

Now, that's what I call smart!

Online Marketing Tips for New Business Owners

Congratulations on being a business owner! Whether your idea is still on the drawing board, at some stage of being launched, or is up-and-running – but it could be ‘running’ better, this article is for you.
As a trainer and coach, one of the areas business owners want to work on most is how they can develop a simple and effective marketing strategy - because the reality is if you have one you can expect your business to grow, and if you don’t it probably won’t.

The good news is that developing a great marketing plan can be easy, fun – and when you begin to see the results you’ll just want to do even more of it.

• Question: when should a business think about marketing?

• Answer: all the time!

Stephen Covey suggests our present knowledge has a ‘half shelf life of two years’, and by that he suggests that up to half of what we know today will become redundant within the next two years. This blows the ‘doing what you’ve always done – getting what you’ve always got’ equation out of the water.

The reality is that no matter how busy and successful you are, you should always keep an eye on developing future opportunities, because if you don’t you can be sure others’ will.

In more than 8 years being involved in Business Training and Coaching, I can say that whilst a percentage of new clients come via referral and recommendation, some will still find me and be convinced to work with me as a result of the marketing I do.

Whether you are new to business, or have been trading a while - whether you are putting together your first marketing plan, or have one already, it’s always a good idea to ask yourself ‘and what am I going to do next’.

Following are tips and ideas I use to help grow and keep my practice busy. Use the ideas that best resonate with you, since the best marketing should always be an extension of your personality.

Click here for Mike’s Marketing Tips for New Business Owners!