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Whether you're just getting started with Twitter or want to learn how to use it more effectively, here's a fabulous free e-Book that explains it all.
How to Use Twitter for Business shows you how to to set-up a Twitter account, create a profile, find people to follow, and how best to use it to connect with others and advance your business.
After you click on the link, scroll down until you see the image on the right. Then you'll see directions on how to download this free, 28 page e-Book.
It will have you up and tweeting in no time.
http://twitter.com/SusanReid
Business podcast with Leslie Haywood – subscribe now via iTunes.
Today I interview Leslie Haywood of Grill Charms. In this podcast of the Accidental Pren-her Show, Leslie talks about the unusually spicy light-bulb experience that inspired her to launch her own business. She also shares how being diagnosed with cancer and having bilateral mastectomy and reconstructive surgeries did not deter her from her goal. Listen to this interview and be inspired!
This
episode
of
Accidental Pren-her: Stories of the Unexpected podcast
is brought to you by OPT Solutions, Inc. Technology management
consultants optimizing business processes and technology for small to
mid-sized organizations.
This question came in from one of our coach readers. If you have a small business question that you'd like for me to answer, let me know.
Q: What exactly is leveraged revenue?
A: There are two types of leveraged income: leveraged and active leveraged.
1. Leveraged income leverages the work of other people to create income for you; such as writing an eBook and selling it through affiliate websites. The key with leveraged income is that you are utilizing other people and the work they are doing on your behalf to flow money to you, rather than you doing it all by yourself.
2. Active leveraged income is the ability to provide your service in the form of a product, on a mass scale. Although it does require your direct participation, your ability to make money increases exponentially because you're delivering it to larger groups of people.
Workshops conferences, and teleseminars are excellent examples of active leveraged income opportunities where you deliver at a one time event, to a large group of people, for a large return on initial investment. Home-study courses are another example where you put together a product package (one time event) and sell it to many, either through affiliates, back of the table sales at speaking engagements, or on your website.
The process is simple: First, figure out what service you can productize that people will buy over and over again, then create a way to deliver this product to a large group of people.
That's all there is to it, folks. Now go out there and leverage something!
If you have a small business question that you'd like for me to answer, let me know.
Susan L. Reid
The original Accidental Pren-her™
Award-winning author of Discovering Your Inner Samurai: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Journey to Business Success
Today . . . I'm thinking about how coaches often struggle to make ends meet on what they're coaching business brings in.
Three Costly Mistakes Coaches Make
1. Charge too little.
I know, I know. When you first start out, you're told to price your services low to attract clients. In theory, this sounds good. In practice, however, you're shooting yourself in the foot.
Here's why: When you charge next to nothing for something, your market perceives the value of your product or service as being too low. That translates into your value as a coach being viewed as low, too. The same with giving something of value away, without asking anything in return. The likelihood of it being appreciated or used is low.
Why is that? There's an energy of lack associated with charging too little for your services. Often potential clients who seek out the lowest priced coaching services aren't looking for the highest return on their investment. They are coming from a place of lack and looking for the cheapest price.
And here's the rub. Those very same clients who pat themselves on the back for shopping around and finding the lowest-paying coaching services are the same ones who will turn around and demand the most from you. They will repeatedly cancel appointments, have a thousand-and-one excuses for not completing their homework, call in-between appointments with crises, and inundate your in-box with questions.
2. Provide only coaching services.
One of the biggest mistakes coaches make right out of coaching school is to focus exclusively on setting up their coaching packages. The problem with this is that coaching packages are typically the highest priced services in a coach's arsenal.
So what happens if you are a new, inexperienced coach and you start promoting your coaching at the $300 - $400 per month price range? Do you think people will happily plop down their hard-earned money just for the opportunity to work with you? Of course they won't.
People don't trust what they don't know. If you are an unknown entity fresh out of coaching school, you will have to create multiple price-point options for your potential clients to choose from, in order to make a living as a coach.
What that means is that you will have to create services AND products that are lower on the price-point scale. This will give your potential clients the opportunity to try you out and get to know you through your lower-priced products and services, before they sign up for one of your higher-end coaching packages.
3. Create passive revenue income.
Yikes, what is she saying? Creating passive income is a detriment? How can she be saying that? Passive income is all the rage! You're right, it is. However, it's not for you, at this time. Here's why.
When you're first starting out as a coach, you want to create leveraged, not passive revenue income. Passive revenue means: create once; sell once.
Leverage revenue, on the other hand, means that you put in a certain amount of hours and you get a very, good return on your investment over time. Leveraged money can increase the amount of money and the amount of profit you can make from your product. Leveraged revenue means: create once; re-purpose multiple times.
That's why it's so important to create both services and products at multiple price-points that you can leverage multiple times in multiple ways.
What do you think of this list? Are there other costly mistakes you as a coach make? Or, if you are a client, do you see some costly mistakes that your coach is making? Let us know.
The original Accidental Pren-her™
Award-winning author of Discovering Your Inner Samurai: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Journey to Business Success
To raise or not to raise; that is the question.
As a coach, how can you justify raising your fees when every day, people are losing their jobs, homes, and their savings, left and right?
What happens if you raise your fees and end up alienating your market? Worse yet, what if you raise your fees and nothing happens?
We're living in an environment of fear. Before you throw in the towel and resolve to do nothing, keep these three things in mind:
The Case for Raising Your Prices
Although the overall strength or weakness of the economy may seem like a logical way to decide to raise or not to raise your prices; it isn't. What your clients will pay for your products and services has little to do with the economy. What your clients are willing to pay has to do with your perceived value.
If they perceive you as offering something that they really need, they will pay you for your service, regardless of the price.
So, should you raise your prices in 2009?
It all depends.
Keep in mind that when the economy changes, the types of products and services that become "in demand" change, too. In tough economic situations, it isn't so much about supply and demand; it's about solution and demise. If you are able to supply a specific solution to keep a client from facing demise, then the case for raising your prices can be made.
Consider this angle: When the economy slows, there is a need for new and different coaching services. Instead of raising your prices on your current services, consider adding a new product or coaching service package to meet the emerging need. If you can do that, then you will have increased how your clients perceive your value and created another revenue stream for yourself.
Raising your fees in 2009 takes careful consideration. On the one hand, you don't just want to dismiss, out-of-hand, the possibility of raising your fees. On the other hand, you don't want to price yourself out of the market by arbitrarily raising your prices. Consider the two cases put forth in this article. Then, decide for yourself if you can establish a direct link between raising your prices and your able to supply a specific solution to increase your client's profitability and success in the emerging economic market. If you can, then you're justified in raising your prices this year.
Will you be raising your coaching prices this year? What criteria will you be using to make that decision? Let us know.
The original Accidental Pren-her™
Award-winning author of Discovering Your Inner Samurai: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Journey to Business Success
Business podcast with Peggy Porter – subscribe now via iTunes.
Today's guest is Peggy Porter, success coach for mom entrepreneurs. Peggy works with moms who are starting up their own businesses. She teaches them how to balance being a great mom, and running a successful business. In this interview, Peggy shares how her background supports her coaching, how she discovered her niche, and why she loves her work. Click below to find out more.
This
episode
of
Accidental Pren-her: Stories of the Unexpected podcast
is brought to you by OPT Solutions, Inc. Technology management
consultants optimizing business processes and technology for small to
mid-sized organizations.
This question came in from one of our readers. If you have a small business question that you'd like for me to answer, let me know.
Q: "How do I go about creating product and service packages for my website?"
A: When you think about what products and services you are going to offer and how you're going to package them, consider this business model: 3-tier leveraged revenue.
Here's how it works:
First, outline your high-end product or service. This is the one that folks probably won't buy now, although they will be ready to purchase it later on, after they get to know you and have tried out your other products and services. Don't go into too much detail planning it all out. Just outline it. From an energetic standpoint, writing down and seeing what this product or service looks like will begin attracting it to you.
Then develop your first and second tier services to flow into your third tier service.
Coaching Product example:
If you have a small business question that you'd like for me to answer, let me know.
The original Accidental Pren-her™
Award-winning author of Discovering Your Inner Samurai: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Journey to Business Success
Lots of people dream about being able to live or work anywhere in the world. Few do.
In all the years I’ve been helping women become home-based business owners, I’m always amazed at just how many of them strap themselves down to one location, once they get their business running. This always surprises me. Especially when one of their main reasons for becoming a home-based business owner in the first place was to have greater flexibility.
At one end of my client-scale are the home-based moms who want the flexibility of being able to move their work to the beach home so they can be with their children and keep their business running, too. On the other end are the adventuresome women who dream of being able to conduct business while living in or traveling to exotic places. Both sets of women seem to think that it’s just too much trouble to get their business ready for travel.
Well, I’m here to tell you nothing can be farther from the truth.
Owning a small business is not just another job. It's a totally different lifestyle. As long as location is not important to your business, these 4 no-brainer essentials will quickly and easily make your business ready for you to live or work anywhere in the world.
Four No-brainer Essentials Necessary for World Travel and Living
I know, first hand, what it’s like to live and do business from many places in the world. I’ve found Internet connections to be nearly everywhere. With just these four no-brainer essential steps, you can stop being a home-based business owner that's strapped to home, and start increasing your flexibility and options. You’ll be surprised what a change of scenery will do for your creativity and business productivity. Read. Set. Pack you bags!
What's worked for you as you've traveled and worked around the world? Have you found some things that have worked better than others? Let us know.
The original Accidental Pren-her™
Award-winning author of Discovering Your Inner Samurai: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Journey to Business Success
What's the point in making a resolution when you're not ready to resolvere?
Resolvere? Yes, resolvere! The etymology of the word resolution is derived from the Latin verb resolvere, meaning to untie, unfasten, loosen, and unbind.
Solvo, solvere, solvi, solutus is the Latin root of that word, and it was the Romans who later added the prefix "re" to solvere to form the word resolvere. When they did that, the "re" intensified the Latin root of the word, so that instead of having the basic meaning of to loosen, it now meant to loosen again and again.
From an energetic standpoint, you can see why so many people have trouble keeping their resolutions – the original meaning of the word is in opposition to its modern application. Today, resolution means to be resolute and determined, while the original meaning meant to release and let go.
What this means from an energetic perspective is that it is impossible to make a resolution unless you're prepared to loosen and unfasten from that which is no longer serving you.
What do you need to release and unfasten from in order to make 2009 a more beneficial and aligned year for you? I wrote an article for Anita Campbell over at Small Business Trends entitled, "Top 10 Resolutions for a More Profitable 2009.” The title of this article could very well have been "Top 10 Resolveres for a More Profitable 2009." Read it to discover the top ten things you can do to propel your small business forward in 2009, while unbinding and loosening from 2008.
What resolvere will you be making this year?
The original Accidental Pren-her™
Award-winning author of Discovering Your Inner Samurai: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Journey to Business Success
Being a mom entrepreneur and running a business from home is more popular now than ever.
With rising gas prices, long commute times, and wear and tear on the family, mom entrepreneurs opting to stay at home while raising their families just makes sense.
The problem is that the freedom, flexibility, and convenience associated with working from home is easier said that done. Balance can be difficult to achieve, isolation tough to deal with, temptations greater and distractions endless.
When this happens, both home and business suffer. Productivity falls off, arguments increase, children act out, and moms who would rather run their business from home so they can be near their children, are forced into returning to the tradition work world in order to help support their family.
It breaks my heart when I see this happen, especially when I know it doesn’t have to be this way.
If you’d like to avoid this happening to you, here are easy solutions to three of the most common problems associated with running a business from home:
Three Most Common Problems and How to Fix Them
1. Dealing with isolation. Being a home-based business owner means you don’t have much opportunity to socialize around the water cooler, walk down the hall to collaborate with colleagues, or brainstorm ideas with other professionals. Plus, except for trips to the grocery store, picking up kids from after school activities, you don’t have much time to yourself.
Solutions: Remember to take breaks throughout the day just for you, not for doing laundry. Go for a quick walk to revitalize. Line up a babysitter and attend one professional event a week. Join mompreneursonline.com and take part in a forum.
2. Make-do office space. One of the problems with running a business from home is that there often isn’t much space in your home to dedicate to your home business. As a result, you make-do with working from a desk in a bedroom, the kitchen table, or living room couch. This leaves you open for constant interruptions.
Solutions: Your home office needs to be a designated place just for work. Preferably a room with a door. If possible, keep the door closed when you are working and closed when you’re not to insure that your business life does not spill over into your private life and vice versa.
3. Everything in one location. If you are used to working outside the home, bringing your business into your home can be an incredible challenge. Where there used to be a separation of work and home, now it’s all under one roof. Here you do it all: eat, sleep, play and work. Temptations are greater and distractions endless.
Solutions: Decide what your business hours will be and stick to them. Work out your schedule with your family in mind, and display it prominently outside your door. Clearly indicate when family time is. Also school events and family outings. Since you’re so used to doing house related things when you’re at home, making a schedule will help organize your time and control your temptations and distractions.
No matter how long you’ve been a mom entrepreneur, chances are you’ve run into these problems. Running your business from home takes organization, discipline, and dedication. The good news is that now you have three solutions to the most common problems associated with home-based business ownership. These solutions will help you get control of your day and make running your business from home a smart decision for your entire family.
The original Accidental Pren-her™
Award-winning author of Discovering Your Inner Samurai: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Journey to Business Success
Business podcast with Julie Northrop – subscribe now via iTunes.
Today's special guest is Accidental Pren-her Julie Northrop of Free Birthday Treats. This quick-fire, 10-minute interview talks about how starting up a business changed her life. You'll hear about her struggles, resonate with her passion, and discover what she does to attract the frugal consumer. You'll also find out about the wide-range of freebies and discounts that Free Birthday Treats offers. Find out more by clicking below.
This
episode
of
Accidental Pren-her: Stories of the Unexpected podcast
is brought to you by OPT Solutions, Inc. Technology management
consultants optimizing business processes and technology for small to
mid-sized organizations.
Business podcast with Laura Rusick – subscribe now via iTunes.
This week I speak with Laura Rusick, president of OPT Solutions, Inc. Laura left the traditional corporate world as a CIO to start her own business as an information technology consultant. In this episode of the Accidental Pren-her, Laura shares how she decided to make the transition to entrepreneur, and how her business can help small to mid-sized businesses optimize their processes and technology.
This
episode
of
Accidental Pren-her: Stories of the Unexpected podcast
is brought to you by OPT Solutions, Inc. Technology management
consultants optimizing business processes and technology for small to
mid-sized organizations.
According to numerology, 2009 is an “eleven year” (2+0+0+9 = 11) and marks the beginning of a new direction for our world. In 2009, the 111th U. S. Congress will commence, and a new president will take office whose birthday reduces to the number 11.
The number 11 is a very significant, spiritual number, known in numerology as a “Master Number.” This means it has a high vibrational capacity. During an 11 year, you can attract situations to you that have far reaching implications and high level effects.
Metaphorically, the number 11 symbolizes a point in a journey where there's a fork in the road and a decision must be made. As a woman entrepreneur, will you choose the path that will ensure positive change and upward growth, or will you choose, instead, the path that portends stagnation and a loss of initiative, purpose and direction?
Great news for small business owners: As we move through 2009, we can count on Master Number 11 to birth anew the vital energy and positive thrust of life that will provide us all with renewed hope for a brighter, more successful future.
Make plans now to be poised and ready to take-off with your business soon after the mid-way point in 2009.
The original Accidental Pren-her™
Award-winning author of Discovering Your Inner Samurai: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Journey to Business Success
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