1. Identify a need in the marketplace. Look for opportunities where clients are underserved.

2. Match the niche you select with your strengths, talents, and interests.

If you’ve been created to succeed at the task at hand, and you’re passionate about what you do, then you’ll be able to overcome difficult times in your new business.

Click here to check out assessments that will help you boost your performance.

3. Research the market in order to ensure that there is a need for your product/service.

4. Compose your mission and vision.

Business owners who have a vivid vision to guide them are the ones who lead their industry.

5. Develop your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) for your product/service.

When you have a compelling reason for people to do business with you, and only you, differentiating you from your competitors, you’ll never feel the heat when people start a similar business.

6. Choose a name that describes what you do.

• a. Confirm that the name you want is not already trademarked at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office online at: www.uspto.gov
• b. Go to www.GoDaddy.com to register a domain name for your Web site. If it’s taken, brainstorm and find another name. Having a Web site that matches your business name is critical.

7. Develop your click-and-mortar business growth strategy.

You must be able to reach people who do business online and/or offline in order to get the maximum number of clients, and serve them according to their preferred buying style.

To learn how you can turn your small business into a click-and-mortar powerhouse, click here.

8. Determine your company’s legal structure.

Talk to an accountant, an attorney and/or an enrolled agent to determine the most advantageous legal structure for the type of business you want to set up.

9. Put together your virtual team of experts to help you save time and get more done.

Two ways you can create a team, and get more done in less time on a low budget are “outsourcing tasks” and contracting your own “virtual assistant” to help you get things done professionally.

One place to find a virtual assistant is www.assistu.com; where you’ll also learn how a VA works in your business without taking any space in your office.

10. Subscribe to a blog (Web log) designed to help small-business owners accelerate the learning curve.

Start with this blog that you’re reading right now http://www.BusinessOwnersJournal.com/mindset and get expanded details on how to apply the above tips. Business blogs are full of important information and research that help the small-business owner save time.

About the Author: John-Paul Micek and his partner Deborah Cole Micek are Business Growth Coaches. They help small business owners like you, achieve profit-doubling growth in one-third the time it would take to do on your own.

In just 12-months with your membership in the www.BusinessOwnersCoachingClub.com you can bridge the digital divide and transform your small business into a click-and-mortar powerhouse that delivers the profits, personal fulfillment, and free time you want.

Posted in these categories:
Small Business Start-up

Want to get the inside scoop, the latest advancements, or the heads-up on up-and-coming companies in your industry or niche? Would you like to generate new ideas that will transform your small business and give you a competitive advantage?

One of the best ways to do that is to regularly scan trade and industry publications.

Unfortunately, too many small-business owners are shortsighted and never take advantage of these incredible timesaving resources. They think that paying for a couple of dozen magazines is a waste; after all, they may only get one good idea a year from them. They feel they don’t have the time.

Let’s set aside the “time” issue for now. (I’ll outline a very simple process that our Business Owner’s Coaching Club members use to quickly filter through, organize, and digest magazine content in a future article.)

There are three reasons why you want to become an investigator of not only your own industry or niche, but also a voyeur of industries other than your own.

1. Bridging the digital divide

Being a small-business owner in today’s competitive environment requires a serious commitment to stay abreast of trends and technology. Forget that fact and you’ll quickly be left behind in the marketplace.

Don’t be fooled into thinking “well, I’m a local business,” or “technology has nothing to do with my industry.” You’d be surprised to find that online and offline technological advances are transforming industries as local as your neighborhood beauty salon, and as seemingly non-technology driven as farming. There’s not an industry in today’s marketplace that is not being reshaped, restructured, and reformed through advancing online and off-line technologies.

You constantly need to be bridging the digital divide, leveraging technology, and developing the infrastructure you need to perform effectively and efficiently. And reviewing trade publications – both inside and outside your core industry/niche –
will help you do just that. The editors of these publications do a lot of research and filtering for you, so there’s no reason not to take advantage of their expertise.

2. Break out of the box

The human mind works best off connections and associations. Without substantial external simulation through exposure to new thoughts, strategies, and tactics, you’re likely to wallow around in a myopic puddle of stagnation. Subscribing to trade publications, not only within your industry, but also in complementary or adjacent industries, will give you a tremendous advantage over your competitors with ideas and solutions outside the conventional norm.

3. One good idea can give you a 1000% return – year after year!

If you only get one good idea out of a dozen magazines over the course of 12 months, would you say that’s been worth your time and investment? Even if it takes two hours per month of your time figured at $100/hour – you bet it is!

In my last 25 years of business ownership I can tell you that I’ve made hundreds of thousands of dollars off ideas that were spawned off of articles or case studies that I read in trade publications.

One example was the application of production-line efficiency principles to a service-based business. That one simple shift on our maintenance crews lowered customer complaints by 80% and reduced on-site time for each property by more than 15%. Without even quantifying the positive impact on client satisfaction, that translated into more than $24,000 dropping directly to the bottom line for each crew every year!

Even for members of www.BusinessOwnersCoachingClub.com who regularly mastermind with owners in diverse industries from around the world, we still recommend this powerful technique for spawning new growth ideas. Put it to use for yourself, bridge the digital divide, and see how easy it is to become the innovation leader in your marketplace.

You can get started for free today! I’ve found a convenient place where you can search for and subscribe to all the trade publications you want – for free! www.tradepub.com

There’s no catch or hidden trick to it. Trade publications and their advertisers want to give you information you need to do business. It’s worth it to them to give you the magazine free because you have a genuine need for the information and products described in them. Advertisers need a vehicle to deliver their message to you, which justifies spending advertising dollars to give subscriptions for free.

© Copyright 1999-2004 by RPM Success Group ®, All rights reserved. Reproduction in any form without the express written consent of RPM Success Group ® is prohibited. You may use this article/post in it’s entirety as an RSS feed without previous permission, so long as it is published in it’s entirety with all copyright notices. Call RPM Success Group toll free at 888-334-8151 for offline reprint permissions, or by email editor@rpmsuccess.com.

About the Author: John-Paul Micek and his partner Deborah Cole Micek are Business Growth Coaches. They help small business owners like you, achieve profit-doubling growth in one-third the time it would take to do on your own.

In just 12-months with your membership in the www.BusinessOwnersCoachingClub.com you can bridge the digital divide and transform your small business into a click-and-mortar powerhouse that delivers the profits, personal fulfillment, and free time you want.

Posted in these categories:
General Posts
Small Business & the Internet

A few weeks ago, I was at a wine tasting event having a great time when it happened. I was enjoying conversation about marketing with a small group of associates when I heard a comment from someone that went right through me like nails on a chalkboard.

The statement? “I’ve tried every type of marketing and nothing seems to work except word of mouth. And even that just drips in.”

A friend of mine spoke up before I had the chance to say anything. She’s worked with me in the past and knows my passion for hi-impact Click-and-Mortar marketing. Carol undoubtedly saw the frustration on my face as this comment was thrown out and she quickly cut off my the question to me asking, “What are your thoughts on that JP?”

Before I tell you my answer, let’s protect the innocent while I give you some background on the person who spoke up. Let’s call the man who threw out this comment “Jim.” I met Jim a few times before, and knew him as a bright man with the potential for significant success in business. I knew Jim had left the corporate world after being downsized, and decided to start his own service business a few years ago.

So rather than answering my friend directly, I turned and asked Jim how he knew that, out of the hundreds of marketing approaches he’s used to get new clients, word of mouth was the only approach that worked. “Oh, I haven’t really tried hundreds of marketing ideas,” he replied.

Ok, so I asked him out of the dozens of approaches he’s tried, how did he know what was bringing him new clients and what wasn’t. Now stammering a bit, Jim replied, “Well I haven’t tried dozens of approaches, really, fully.”

For the benefit of everyone there, including Jim, I cut to the chase and asked him point blank the specific marketing techniques he’s used to come to his conclusions. Jim sheepishly replied, “I’ve run some ads in the newspaper and did a couple of mailings to local businesses.” That was Jim’s definition of trying “everything” to market his business.

Unfortunately, Jim is not out of the ordinary. Many people think they’ve tried “everything” to market their business, when in fact they’ve really only made a few feeble attempts at mirroring what corporations with limitless marketing budgets do.

With a little coaxing, I convinced Jim to share more with our group so everyone could learn something new.

As we continued our conversation Jim was willing to admit he knew very little about marketing, or more specifically marketing that works in today’s marketplace. He knew how to deliver the service his customers expected, and is darn good at it. But Jim was at a loss on how he could optimize his time, money, and efforts when it came to marketing.

We started talking about the power that small business owners have today when they know how to use online and offline approaches together to get hi-impact results. The level playing field that’s been created between big corporations and small business through technology and the internet.

And the more we spoke, the wider Jim’s eyes got. Especially when I explained the principles of permission based marketing.

Now that he was fully motivated I recommended three books to Jim (one of which was Permission Marketing by Seth Godin,) which he devoured in a matter of weeks. Once Jim was grounded and understood the marketing approaches he would use, we started working together applying a number of low-cost online and offline tactics in his business.

With five simple changes Jim doubled his client list in just six months. He transformed his business so much that we began working on hiring a field manager and two new technicians to handle the work load while he focused on growing the business to the next level.

What Does “Everything” Mean To You?

How many times have you said to yourself, “I’ve tried everything to get more clients.” I know I’ve fallen into that self-pity party myself on more than a few occasions. How about you?

Here’s something you can do to stop those words dead in their tracks the next time they want to creep out. Simply ask yourself, “What specific things have I tried to attract new clients?” Write down all the answers. How many are offline? How many are online? How many are modeled after what big corporations do?

The short list that you get may surprise you, but don’t beat yourself up though. This list is the starting point for success, and you’ll be in the company of tremendously successful people like Thomas Edison who’ve done exactly the same thing.

After struggling to develop a viable electric light-bulb for months and months, Thomas Edison was interviewed by a young reporter who boldly asked Mr. Edison if he felt like a failure and if he thought he should just give up by now. Perplexed, Edison replied, “Young man, why would I feel like a failure? And why would I ever give up? I now know definitively over 9000 ways that an electric light bulb will NOT work. Success is almost in my grasp.” And shortly after that, and over 10,000 attempts, Edison invented the light bulb. And we’re all the better for it, and thankful he persevered.

Brilliant, yes. Unique to Edison, no.

You have the same power to succeed within you. You must take the list of things you’ve tried so far and learn from them. Maybe you need to learn how to market in a way that’s effective in today’s cluttered marketplace, like our friend Jim from the wine tasting. Then find some people or resources that can help you bridge the digital divide.

You can start by reading some good marketing books. Or step it up to a whole new level by getting your own business coach who’ll help you stop fumbling around in the dark and start putting more profits in your pocket.

And don’t fall for the “I’ll just hire a ‘pro’ to do it for me” lie. While there are some things in your business that you don’t need to know well before trusting someone else to complete them, marketing is not one of them. Blindly handing over your marketing dollars to a marketing pro is no different than handing over your life savings to a so-called “investment pro” without understanding investing. You shouldn’t do it with your retirement funds, and you shouldn’t do it with your marketing budget either.

Whatever your challenges are, you never want to use the word everything in describing what you’ve tried. Appreciate what you’ve attempted so far - yes. Learn what you can from it and identify where your own personal knowledge is lacking - sure. But then take steps to fill in those gaps and move boldly ahead trying more and more techniques until you discover what really works for you.

There is no “luckier” or easier way to become more successful.

© Copyright 1999-2004 by RPM Success Group ®, All rights reserved. Reproduction in any form without the express written consent of RPM Success Group ® is prohibited. You may use this article/post in it’s entirety as an RSS feed without previous permission, so long as it is published in it’s entirety with all copyright notices. Call RPM Success Group toll free at 888-334-8151 for offline reprint permissions, or by email editor@rpmsuccess.com.

Click here to see how you can become Click-and-Mortar marketing master in your small business. In just 12-months you can bridge the digital divide and transform your business into a Click-and-Mortar powerhouse that delivers the profits, personal fulfillment, and free time.

Posted in these categories:
General Posts
On-Line & Off-Line Marketing

The human mind is a powerful producer of the power required to achieve entrepreneurial success. It will always perform reliably and produce results that are to the quality of input it recieves. This makes your mind (and the minds of your employee team) one of the most powerful tools you have for accelerating the growth of your company… when properly programed.

I was reminded of this fact recently when Deborah and I had the opportunity to meet and speak with Dr. John Rutledge (chairman of Rutledge Research and Rutledge Capital, founder of The Rutledge Institute and economic advisor to two Whitehouse Administrations.) During an intimate Q&A session we were honored to attend here in Hawaii, business owners from around the world asked detailed questions about topics such as aquiring investment capital, global competition and how to succeed in business in the new millenium.

What surprised me is that in the answer to almost every question, including those dealing with the rebuilding of Iraq (he’s one of the main advisors in that massive undertaking) Dr. Rutledge focused his answers on human psychology and its impact on performance, profits and the aquisition of capital. Without the right psychology and attitude it’s virtually impossible for a business person in any culture to succeed.

I want to share with you a mini-coaching session that can help you begin to put the power of your mind into practical action. It’s a simple one-word shift that you can immediately make in your company, even if you have more than a hundred people on your team!

The One Word That Can Revolutionize Your Business ©

Can one word really improve your cash flow, increase the lifetime value of your clients and change the attitude of your entire team?

It may seem like a stretch, but it’s true. As a matter of fact, this simple one word replacement can cause such a powerful shift in psychology that it can literally revolutionize the entire culture of your business. I’ve seen companies who diligently make sure this word shift sticks and stays in use benefit from a 30%-plus annual increase in re-purchases.

So what’s this simple word you can start using for the same or greater benefits?

Stop using the word “Customer” and Start using the word “Client.”

What makes this one simple word so powerful is that the common definition of a “client” is a person who has their needs met by a professional. In contrast, a “customer” is usually just considered a person who’s buying something. The word “client” creates an expectation of a lasting and professional relationship. Not so with the word “customer.” It creates the expectation of a single sale.

If you doubt this, just think what your own impression would be if you hired an attorney, and while visiting their office you notice that you’re referred to by their staff as a customer, instead of client.

I know what my reaction would be, because I’ve had this happen to me. My immediate impression when I heard the term “customer” instead of “client” was that this so-called professional only cared about making money - and more importantly, they just didn’t seem “professional” anymore. Just that one word shaped my entire perception of that attorney and the way he viewed his business.

Understanding the critical difference in these two words and practicing this simple change will help you create dynamic shifts in the way your business is perceived by the public. Whether you own your own company, or if you’re a member of a company team, your income comes from one source and one source only - the clients who invest in your company through the products and services you provide. With this one simple change you can help your team develop a powerful new way of thinking about the people who make their paycheck a reality.

Do you want those people to feel like “buyers” who are being sold something? Or do you want them to feel as if they’re in a relationship with a person who wants to understand and meet their needs?

Think about it in your own life. Which businesses do you have long term relationships with? I’d be willing to bet it’s the companies who make you feel that you’re in a professional long-term relationship where your needs/desires are understood, and met.

Do you think what you want is any different from what the people you serve in business want? Of course not. They want the same thing as you.

Not The Only Word…

And this word shift of customer to client, is just one example. When you apply this simple little secret of using better words to define various experiences in your business, you’ll set yourself up for exponential performance improvements. Here’s a few more examples to give you a start:

“Challenge … >>change to>> … Issue”

“The Client is_______” … >>change to>> … “My perception of the client’s actions is…”

It’s really a quite simple Neuro Linguistic Programming technique where words are used to create a certain of emotional state. In the coaching and development work we do with companies seeking to improve performance, this technique has been proven time and time again. Since this is one of the simplest things for people to adjust it’s often one of the first actions that I recommend.

Specific words when used over and over again can, (and do) create shifts in peoples of emotional states and their attitudes about what’s going on around them.

Many times when I work with a business owner or manager, we’ll change the words used to identify everything from position titles to operational processes. Position titles are particularly interesting because a shift of terminology in this area can make an significant and noticeable improvement in employee performance, especially in a service or retail/sales business. (And these shifts happen quickly too! In one company, I’ve seen this one word change generate unsolicited positive feedback from clients within thirty days of position titles being changed!)

In most small businesses though, the best place to start is with shifting from “customer” to “client.” Some of the most broad-based performance improvements can come from this shift. But in order for this to work it’s critical that you make sure everyone on your team really understands why this change is being made. This is usually best accomplished in an interactive group coaching environment with your entire company team.

The words you and your team use to identify people who are investing in the products and services of your company is key to determining how they’re treated. Understanding the powerful impact that words have and practicing this simple change on a consistent basis will help you and your team internalize a new way of thinking about the people who make staying in business possible - your clients.

Give it your all and focus on this change of “Customer” to “client” for just 30 days. You’ll notice that every person who walks through your door, calls your company on the phone or is served by your team will be positively impacted by this change. And if you want some really powerful results, revisit this process once every three months and I can assure you that you’ll begin to see measurable improvements in your bottom line.

YOUR COACHING CORNER:

To help you realize the full impact of this simple process on the preformance, profits, and client satisfaction of your small business, take 5-minutes to write out your answers to these questions. Then put them into use in the next 30-days and watch the shift in mindest (and results) that occurs!

1. What are better words you can use to define/label three critical processes/systems in your business? Write down the old word/label and then the new.

2. What is YOUR definition of each of the new words/labels you listed above? And why did you choose each of those new words/labels? (This is critical for you “believing” in the new labels. If you don’t buy the new labels yourself you’ll never be able to maintain the shift to the new words long enough to see any measurable benefits. And, you’ll never be able to “sell” the change to your team.)

3. Review your choices with your coach. Work together to set some goals that you’d like to see reached because of these new labels measurements. Be sure to come up with at least one quantifiable measurement that can verify your achievement of each goal.

© Copyright 1999-2004 by RPM Success Group ®, All rights reserved. Reproduction in any form without the express written consent of RPM Success Group ® is prohibited. You may use this article/post in it’s entirety as an RSS feed without previous permission, so long as it is published in it’s entirety with all copyright notices. Call RPM Success Group toll free at 888-334-8151 for offline reprint permissions, or by email editor@rpmsuccess.com.

About the Author: John-Paul Micek and his partner Deborah Cole Micek are Business Growth Coaches. They help small business owners like you, achieve profit-doubling growth in one-third the time it would take to do on your own.

In just 12-months with your membership in the www.BusinessOwnersCoachingClub.com you can bridge the digital divide and transform your small business into a click-and-mortar powerhouse that delivers the profits, personal fulfillment, and free time you want.

Posted in these categories:
General Posts
Client-Centric Service

If you’re into thinking outside the box, and if you’re like me when you’re working on marketing or sales copy — heavily reliant on a thesaurus — you’ll love a resource that I’ve found to be a big help. It’s called the Visual Thesaurus and you can access it at www.visualthesaurus.com.

Punch in a word and you’ll get a visual map that shows relationships in three dimensions. It will rotate to reveal an entire universe of related words. Very cool!

Even cooler (and infinately more convenient) is when you place your cursor over a word, you get meaning. Place your cursor over the line in between words and you get the relationship between the two. Click on a meaning and the universe gets reordered with the new word at the center.

This is a great tool when writing sales copy, putting together an important presentation/proposal that you want to have that special bit of punch, or just breaking old patterns of thought.

Enjoy — online subscriptions are only $12/yr.

Posted in these categories:
General Posts
On-Line & Off-Line Marketing