Today I was browsing through some discussion topics in an online group I belong to, and came across a request for input on a new product that a parent coach was creating for her clients. This coach is working on a home study product designed to help parents feel more confident about their parenting.
My radar always goes off when I see a coach who is trying to sell coaching. What I mean by “selling coaching” is that you’re trying to sell the things we coaches are best able to help our clients achieve, like “balance, happiness, fulfillment,” etc. In the words of my own coach and mentor, Rhonda Hess, “Coaching doesn’t sell.” This is very scary news to hear when you’re a life coach who has just spent a ton of money to get yourself certified and is out there looking for some clients to work with. But it doesn’t mean you can’t be successful as a coach. It’s all in how you position what you offer to your target audience.
Below is my response to the parent coach who was asking our group for our ideas and suggestions about her product. Read on to see my coaching to her for how to create a product her clients will want to buy.
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So I’m glad you’re doing some “market research” by asking for some feedback here. Often times we create a product or service offering that we think is a good idea, but we don’t check it out with our audience before investing a lot of time, effort and energy into it.
I know that you see a lot of parents out there who are not confident in themselves as parents, and I’m sure that as a parent yourself and a coach, you know the unbelievable value of getting to the other side of that, and know how that confidence makes a huge positive impact on your child.
That said, it’s hard to sell “being more confident.” I’ve been a coach for five years now, and I spent the first two of them trying to sell “life coaching” and all of the things we help our clients achieve like “balance, happiness, fulfillment, etc.” While these are clearly important and valuable, I found it very hard to get people to put a price tag on them and pull out their wallets to pay me for them.
How connected are you with your target audience? Are you engaged with them, talking with them in person and online, coaching them already? What are their top problems and challenges? What are they telling you they need help with? And what are they willing to pay for? I.e. Are they willing to pay in order to be more confident in their lives?
My experience is that although they want this really badly, they can’t justify spending money on it.
Now, that said, you may still have a great product to create. My coaching to you would be to check in with your target audience. Ask them if they “need this” and what they would be willing to pay for it. By having some great conversations with your target audience about their problems, challenges and concerns, you will learn what they are most willing to pay for. As a mom and a coach, you have a wealth of resources you could provide to solve their problems. Make your offerings be solutions to your clients “pains” and they’ll sell.
It’s not a question whether you or your services are valuable–it’s all about how you market what you offer so that your target audience realizes they NEED it.
Let’s help her out: Are you a parent who needs help building your confidence about your parenting? What sort of things would help you with this? And would you be willing to pay for a home study guide to support you? Please leave your feedback below.
This morning I was reading Natalie MacNeil’s fabulous blog, She Takes On The World, and was really struck by this idea of how many outwardly-successful people are privately financially troubled. She is quoting author and financial expert Manisha Thakor.
If the whole world got financially naked – there would be shrieks galore! In our modern, hyper-consumptive society, millions of people present external images to the world that bear limited resemblance to their true, inner financial reality. During my 15 years working in the financial services industry I met countless people earning not only six digit but even SEVEN digit incomes who were living paycheck-to-paycheck. It was this concept – that if we really bared it all financially to each other many things would change – that was the genesis of the book title.
In terms of the meat of the book, it boils down to this. If you want to have a healthy, intimate romantic relationship you need to communicate with your mate about money. Alas, that’s not the message society gives us. Money is a subject that in many respects is more taboo than sex. When you meet that someone special, people will ask if you are physically compatible, spiritually compatible, emotionally compatible, or intellectually compatible. But rarely does anyone ask if you and your honey are financially compatible. That’s too bad because study after study shows financial issues are often the ones that make or break a relationship over the long run. So the goal of this book is to give readers both a language and a roadmap to traverse the often rocky path that is getting to know your mate, financially speaking.
Manisha Thakor is on a mission to teach women how to “own your finances and own your life.” Through her books, articles, television and radio appearances, speeches, and blog –this female personal finance expert inspires women to take charge of their money. Her latest book, co-authored with fellow Harvard MBA Sharon Kedar, is Get Financially Naked. Manisha made time in her busy schedule for an interview with She Takes on the World.
I highly recommend you read the whole article (and browse around Natalie’s blog–this is just one of the gems you’ll find interesting and helpful to read as a mom entrepreneur).
How honest are you and your spouse or partner being with each other about your finances? Are you achieving the financial results you want in your business? Do you know how your income and expenses impact your family’s financial goals?
Many of the mompreneurs I coach struggle with these issues. They’re scared about “coming clean” with their spouse about how little they’re earning or how much they’re spending for their business. This kind of hiding or secrecy combined with the lack of a solid income is one of the biggest eroding factors in a mompreneur business.
Want some support in re-creating your mom entrepreneur business in a way that is powerful, successful and sustainable for the long haul? Check out my new signature program, The Mom Biz Makeover Program, which launches on March 1st. My mission is to help mompreneurs create businesses that truly support them and their families.
Guest post by Mike McClure, Partner, Executive Creative Director & Social Media Director for The Yaffe Group
If you’re an entrepreneur or smaller business looking to get more business on a small to miniscule budget, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that with all the free and low cost tools available in the digital and social media world, you can be quite effective without spending a lot of money. The bad news? To make it work, you do need to invest a lot of time sprinkled with inspiration and innovation. Having a personality helps, too.
More good news: many individuals and companies are finding a lot of productive leads and connections through these channels. More bad news: it’s not a quick fix. It’s something you need to commit to and keep at. That doesn’t mean it will take you a year or two to see any results. But, it does mean you can’t just post a brilliant blog or open a Twitter account and expect the new business to start flooding through your doors.
Here’s 5 ways you can start improving your business without seriously hurting your bottom line:
1. Connect, connect, connect.
Use all the social networking tools available to you. Social networking is a great way to connect with people who may need your product or services. Just make sure you don’t start by broadcasting how great you are or trying to sell something. It’s like a cocktail party. Start with small talk; find out where you have common interests and where you can help them with their needs. It’s a good way to get to know someone you’ve never met before. Once they like and know you, they’ll be much more likely to want to do business with you.
I would suggest starting with LinkedIn if you haven’t gotten into any network. It’s the most business oriented site. Here’s a good post on how one business owner used LinkedIn to get a board of directors seat (http://bit.ly/21gfNB). From there, it’s a matter of preference and what type of business you’re in. You may want to start a Facebook fan page or personal page next. Or you may find the immediacy of Twitter is more to your liking. Here’s a good post by Lara Galloway on how she uses Twitter as one of her main new business tools (http://bit.ly/1wTAFo).
2. Answer Questions on LinkedIn
One the best features on LinkedIn is the Q&A section. Why? It gives you a chance to meet people out of your network, help them with a problem they have and display your expertise. Just go to the sections where questions are being asked on subjects that fit your business offerings and your area of expertise.
Here’s just one example of how that’s worked for me. I saw a question from a guy writing a book on social media. He was looking for examples of social media success stories. I told him about a campaign we’d done for one of our clients that had worked well. He liked it, we linked together and over the next 6 months had several conversations through LinkedIn messaging. This fall he was looking for judges for a big Blog Off competition his company was having. I volunteered and became part of an international “Dream Team” panel (http://bit.ly/6xs3XH) Besides the publicity of the contest itself, I will be listed in an upcoming book as one of the world’s top social media people, will be talked about on a Blog Talk Radio show that reaches millions and in video shows by one of Europe’s top providers of online content. Not bad for a small business owner in Detroit.
3. Use Blog Talk Radio
This is a free, easy way to create podcasts for your own enterprise. There are two ways you can use Blog Talk Radio to help your business. One is to sign up at blogtalkradio.com and host your own show. This way you can have your own radio talk show. You can invite guests who will speak on subject matters relevant to your audience or you can invite guests who represent companies you want to do business with. Or you can sometimes just speak on subjects you’re knowledgeable about and make those podcasts available to your potential clients. For an example of doing your own show, you can look at the Mom Biz Coach show. (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mombizcoach)
The second, and easier, way to use Blog Talk Radio is to volunteer your expertise to someone who has a show. Our head of Yaffe Direct, Michael Morin, went on the Chuck Talks Business show and had an hour long interview. It went well and, with Chuck’s permission, we downloaded the podcast and posted it on our Yaffe Tidbits site (http://www.yaffetidbits.com/podcasts/radio/morin_marketing.html). We then edited a 2-minute teaser of some of the best parts of the interview. We emailed the two minute version to a list of prospects along with a link to the full podcast. Within a few weeks we got several inquiries from potential clients who we never would have gotten to talk to otherwise.
4. Buy a Flip Camcorder
You can get a really nice Flip Camcorder for around $125; I’d also pop for the small tripod that’s about $20-25. The Flip is an extremely easy way to shoot, edit and post videos to your site, blog, Facebook fan page, YouTube channel or wherever you can add video to your online presence. Video is a way to really put a face on your business. You can simply set it up on the tripod, point it at yourself and record a video blog. You can also record and post client testimonials. (http://bit.ly/8UXVZ8) It’s also small and portable that you can carry it with you when you go to a conference, meeting, seminar, tweetup or wherever. At these events you can ask people’s opinions on whatever issues you’d like to cover for your clients/potential clients. It takes nothing to plug the Flip into your computer and use the included edit system to string together the comments you like and post that video to one of your sites. All this adds to both your content and your credibility.
5. Blog about potential clients
If you have a blog for your business (if you don’t, start one now), you can meet potential clients simply by asking them if you can interview them for an upcoming blog post. It’s a great way to meet and get to know someone in a non-sales environment (important note: don’t try and sell yourself or company during the interview). Who doesn’t like the idea of someone wanting to interview them for their expert opinion? More often than not, you’ll be able to find someone willing to talk about their business for the free publicity for both their company and themselves.
Even if you don’t get an interview, do research on the company and write a blog post about what they’re doing right as a company. Here’s an example of a post I wrote about Biggby Coffee. (http://bit.ly/6Hferc) After creating it, send the post to them. Even if it doesn’t peak their interest in you, they may link the post to their own site or blog. We still get traffic to our blog from companies that have linked to a post about them from many months ago.
There you have it. Five ideas that should get your business some attention without spending an arm and a leg. I’d say good luck, but it really is just a matter of good hard work.
To learn more about Mike McClure, The Yaffe Group and the great marketing work he does for his clients, visit his site and be sure to follow him on Twitter!
In celebration of my one year anniversary of using Twitter this month, I took some time to consider the impact this fabulous tool has had on my business.
How has Twitter changed your approach to your business? Are you using it for some things that I didn’t mention here? I’d love to hear your ideas, so leave a comment below.
There’s some debate going on about how and whether to use Social Media tools like Twitter and Facebook for business. My seven-year-old had some insight into how I use it. One day, while peering over my laptop and seeing me posting onto Twitter, he asked: “Mom, is Twitter your office?” My answer? “Well, um, yes it is.”
Twitter is so completely my office: I connect with my friends, colleagues, and general tweeple each time I sign on, much in the same way I used to say hello to my office mates when I arrived at work before I had kids. We exchange pleasantries and catch up on each other’s lives. We create, build and strengthen our relationships through regular contact, just like I used to do in my cubicle office.
When it’s time to get down to real work, twitter is where I go to research, learn, market myself, follow up with prospects, provide accountability for my mompreneur coaching clients who request it, and the main venue for scheduling and confirming appointments with prospects and collaborators.
Twitter is the source and the venue of all my marketing, sales, business operations. My virtual assistants and I communicate through quick tweets back and forth to keep projects moving along. I market my coaching services, programs and products through simple Twitter campaigns, and I’m fortunate enough to have an amazing group of supporters and influencers who follow me and recommend the work I do to other people I have never met. I’ve traded the board room and conference rooms of Corporate America for a virtual meeting room I can attend anytime I like, wearing what’s comfortable for me to wear.
Then, at the end of a long day, I have a glass of wine and browse around the Twitter profiles of my friends and colleagues to see what they’re up to. It’s my virtual water cooler and Happy Hour, all from the comfort of wherever I happen to be.
Wanna hear the crazy twist to all this business productivity on Twitter? I only spend about 15-30 minutes a day in my “Twitter office.”
How do you use Twitter for business? I’d love to see your comments below. And if you’d like some ideas about new, fun, effective ways to use Twitter and Facebook for business, tun into my free teleseminar tomorrow with Christine Gallagher of CommunicateValue.com on my BlogTalkRadio Show. Click here for call-in (as well as podcast) information.
Guest post by Amyli McDaniel of www.EnlightenedMompreneur.com
See the original post by Amyli on her blog here.
The longer I am in the world of entrepreneurship, the more I am realizing that it is not the “business idea” that makes most mompreneurs successful.
In fact, it is quite easy to research a market and either find or create a product or service to meet a need in the market. The tough part is figuring out how to rise about the noise, get your customers to buy from you and then get them to refer you.
It is natural to focus so much on the product or service you are providing. But, when I started focusing more on the buyer of the product or service, my businesses started selling more and started creating a much higher buyer experience for my customers. And this meant a lot more revenue!
So, how do you focus on your buyer? I took the advice of a well known marketer- David Meerman Scott and I actually create Buyer Personas for my products and services.
I think about what they look like, how old they are, how they think, what they care about and what process the go through when they are searching out what I provide? Sometimes I even give them a name and think of a visual person for each persona as this really helps in my marketing.
One thing that helped me to figure this out was thinking about my kids. When you shop for something your child needs or wants, you are always thinking about that specific child. . . his or her personality, needs, emotions and what would be the best fit for that child.
You are not making decisions in a vacuum by just looking at the line by line features and other components of a product or service. You are always thinking about what resonates with your child.
In your business, you are on the opposite side of the equation but your prospects are the child in the same thought process.
Once I started doing this, the marketing on my websites changed. Instead of talking about the features of my products and services, I started to talk in their language and address their needs and wants.
And the result was phenomenal. Now, every time I start a new business, I do this and it governs every communication I have with prospects and customers. And, I find that this one shift in perspective has allowed me to short cut an otherwise very long process of trying to differentiate myself from other competitors and businesses.
Guest post by Susan Gunelius from Entrepreneur.com
In my book, Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps, I teach small and mid-size business owners who can’t afford to hire professional copywriters how to write effective copy that will bring the results from their marketing efforts that they want and need. However, just as there are steps you must take to write great copy, there are also mistakes you can make that can destroy your marketing messages and reduce your ROI to a fraction of what it could have been. Whatever you do, don’t believe the five myths described below.
1. Consumers care about me and my business
No, they don’t. They care about what’s in it for them if they pull out their wallets and hand over their hard-earned money to buy your product or service. They don’t care that you’ve been a member of the local Chamber of Commerce for 20 years, and they don’t care how cute your kids are (so leave them out of your commercials, please). Consumers care about having their needs and wants fulfilled. The goal of copywriting is to convince consumers that the product or service you’re selling will meet their needs and desires, even if you have to create perceived needs and desires for them. In other words, your copy must focus on the benefits consumers will receive if they buy your product or service. It’s great that your business has operated from the same location for 10 years, but for the most part, consumers only truly care about what your business can do for them and how your business can make their lives easier or better. Those are the messages your copy should focus on in order to drive results.
2. I can use the same copy everywhere
No, you shouldn’t. Your copy should change depending on the medium where you’re using it. For example, if you’re writing copy for an outdoor billboard that consumers are likely to have only seconds to view while driving 65 miles per hour on a busy highway during rush hour, your message must be short and to the point with no room for confusion. However, if you’re writing copy for a direct-mail piece that will be sent to customers who have requested to receive information about your business, your copy should be far more detailed with messages that explain, answer questions, and create a sense of urgency to boost response rates.
3. I can use the same copy for everyone
No, that’s not a good idea. Different audiences will respond to different messages depending on their demographics, behaviors, experiences and so on. For example, if you’re writing copy for a direct-mail piece that will be sent to prior customers, your messages should be very different from those that would appear in a mailing to prospects. One audience is already very familiar with your products and services, while the other has no prior experience to draw from. Clearly, the messages to both audiences must be different to achieve the maximum response rates possible.
4. I need to sound smart in my copy Not always. The language and tone of your copy should speak directly to the people who are likely to see it. For example, if you’re writing copy for teenagers, your copy should be quite different from copy targeted at senior citizens. Consider McDonald’s, which goes so far as to change references to its brand name depending on the audience. Turn on MTV and you’re sure to see a McDonald’s commercial referencing the fast food chain as “Mickey D’s”. It’s also important to omit jargon unless your copy is intended for an audience that will understand and expect it. For example, a business-to-business ad might be an appropriate place for jargon. Again, it always depends on the target audience that you ultimately want to respond to your marketing message.
5. It’s easy to write copy
Never. Writing marketing copy is like no other form of writing. It defies many of the rules you may have learned in English class, and it relies more on subtle persuasion, psychology, creativity and an understanding of your specific business and consumers than any other type of writing. Not all writers are good copywriters, and not all copywriters are good writers. If you decide to write your own copy, study the craft prior to putting pen to paper. And if you decide to hire a copywriter to help you, remember that not all copywriters are the same. Only invest in a copywriter who has experience and takes the time to understand your business and your customers.
Susan Gunelius is president and CEO of KeySplash Creative Inc., a full service marketing communications provider and branding consultancy, and owner of WomenOnBusiness.com, one of the leading blog communities for business women. Susan is a marketing, branding, social media and copywriting expert with nearly 20 years of experience in the field. Her clients include small and large businesses around the globe. She is the author of severalmarketing, branding and social media books, includingKick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps published by Entrepreneur Press.
In one of my mom entrepreneur coaching groups, I was recently asked the following question:
Of the various marketing tools and methods you use, which has yielded the best financial return?
Can you guess my answer? I bet you can.
My favorite marketing tool is TWITTER. I get several leads a day directly from twitter. That’s why I’m so passionate about it. Let me expand a little on that, though.
I just hosted a teleseminar yesterday with my coach, Rhonda Hess, about automating your sales process to attract thousands of ideal clients. (You can click here if you’d like to listen to the podcast on-demand.)
In that teleseminar, Rhonda explained how we should all focus on a BLOG as our centerpiece. Write in your authentic voice, share your thoughts, wisdom, opinions, photographs of your work or products, lessons learned from a situation or experience that is relevant to your target market, etc. and you’ll start attracting readers who want to spend more time with you and ultimately purchase what you sell. Then everytime you post to your blog, you share it on twitter (and facebook and LinkedIn, etc.) with a link back to your blog. By doing this, along with asking for and responding to comments to your blogposts, you are building relationships and increasing the “stickiness” of your blog. Internet marketers use the term “stickiness” to refer to how compelling your website or blog is and how long your prospects “stick around” to read more on it. I use twitter as a vehicle to connect with people, to build relationships, and to deliver prospects back to my website and blog so they can learn more about what I do. Upon checking my blog statistics, the top referrer to my blog and website is almost always twitter.
Twitter is, of course, a free tool, but it does cost me my time. As a mompreneur, time happens to be my most expensive and valuable asset. That said, I spend very little time on twitter most days. I usually pop on and off for 1-5 minutes at a time several times a day. There are days I never logon to twitter, and then there are times when the kids are in bed that I’ll spend two hours on twitter chatting with friends and potential clients. I also use several twitter integration tools so that lots of what I tweet can occur automatically, saving me a lot of time.
As a return on my investment, I am currently getting a couple of warm leads each day from twitter. Given my very limited work schedule of only 10 hours a week (client-facing time), this is more than enough to fill my pipeline.
My second favorite marketing tool is my BlogTalkRadio Show. I’m finding that people all over the world are hearing me on the internet and already feel related to me because of this. As a result, my prospects are ready to hire me before we ever speak in person.
People like to consume their information in different formats, so if you’re not currently using audio or video as part of your marketing strategy, it would be worthwhile to consider adding these options. If you have no clue how you could integrate audio and video into an effective marketing strategy for your business, let’s set up a free 20-minute brainstorming session and get you started.
So what are your favorite marketing tools? Do you enjoy marketing or prefer to delegate it to someone else? Do you spend most of your marketing budget on traditional (print, radio, tv) methods or on Social Media Marketing? Please join the discussion and leave a comment below.
If you’re looking for a silver bullet, you won’t find that sorta thing on my blog. Ever.
That said, I do believe it’s both possible and necessary for mompreneurs to find ways to make more money while working less.
I’ve been answering a lot of questions in my coaching groups lately about the idea of creating a sustainable business model for mom entrepreneurs and work at home moms. The bottom line is this: if you’re running a business that is running you ragged, stressing you out, taking up all of your time and leaving very little of you for your family to enjoy, then you (and your business) won’t last for long.
One of the best ways to make your business sustainable is to learn how to automate some of the actions and processes you do over and over. We all have to develop strategies to find new clients and keep our sales pipelines full. This takes a lot of time, effort and energy for all of us mom entrepreneurs. Think about it–if you could get these tasks that you have to do repeatedly off your to-do list, you could spend your time doing something else, like go on a bike ride with the kids, or read a magazine while the kids run through the sprinkler, or you could spend some time creating a vision for the future of your business rather than just scrambling through all the work that has to get done.
Wanna learn some tricks that will help you get your business working while you’re working on your tan this summer?
Join me on Tuesday, June 23rd, at 12 pm ET when my special guest, Rhonda Hess, teaches us “How to Automate Your Business to Attract Thousands of Ideal Clients.” Rhonda is a Coaching Business Success Strategist and founder of Prosperous Coach. Best of all, she’s MY business coach! I’m delighted to share my fabulous coach and mentor with all of my listeners.
This free teleseminar is part of my WoMEN: What Mom Entrepreneurs Need Series. You can register to receive the freebies, Special Reports and other offers my guests make available to our listeners by going to www.whatmomentrepreneursneed.com and filling in the email form at the top of the page. You’ll also be notified when I add more speakers and more topics (which I occasionally do).
I know that I’m looking for ways to get out of the office and spend the lazy, unstructured time with my family that summer always brings. Having some systems that allow me to attract exactly the clients I want will give me the freedom to do just that!
You can listen live (or on demand once the call is over) via phone or over the internet. Just go to BlogTalkRadio to get details.
Do you have questions for me or Rhonda? Leave them here and we’ll do our best to address them on the call, or you can call in live to the show (go to BlogTalkRadio to get the dial-in instructions).
Many of us mompreneurs try to protect or hide the fact that we’re also solopreneurs, a company of one.
Why?
For most, we’re concerned that we won’t be seen as credible, professional, established, or simply “big enough” as compared to our competitors who have whole departments working for them.
But is this necessarily true? What if the thing that’s most appealing to your potential clients is your uniqueness? Are you trying to conceal that uniqueness in your marketing efforts?
If you’re using the “royal we” on your website rather than speaking straight from your heart and gut, chances are you’re not attracting your ideal clients and you’re spending a lot of time and energy trying to be something you’re not. I’m going to talk more about this on my BlogTalkRadio show in a few minutes. You can click here to listen live or on-demand (whenever it fits into your schedule) to learn how being real speaks a lot louder and sends a better message than believing that what you are isn’t enough.
Susan Gunelius is president and CEO of KeySplash Creative Inc., a full service marketing communications provider and branding consultancy, and owner of WomenOnBusiness.com, one of the leading blog communities for business women. Susan is a marketing, branding, social media and copywriting expert with nearly 20 years of experience in the field. Her clients include small and large businesses around the globe. She is the author of several marketing, branding and social media books, including Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps published by Entrepreneur Press.
One of the best ways to make your business sustainable is to learn how to automate some of the actions and processes you do over and over. We all have to develop strategies to find new clients and keep our sales pipelines full. This takes a lot of time, effort and energy for all of us mom entrepreneurs. Think about it–if you could get these tasks that you have to do repeatedly off your to-do list, you could spend your time doing something else, like go on a bike ride with the kids, or read a magazine while the kids run through the sprinkler, or you could spend some time creating a vision for the future of your business rather than just scrambling through all the work that has to get done.
If you’re using the “royal we” on your website rather than speaking straight from your heart and gut, chances are you’re not attracting your ideal clients and you’re spending a lot of time and energy trying to be something you’re not. I’m going to talk more about this on my BlogTalkRadio show in a few minutes. You can click 
