Quick Help - Supermummy BlogReturning from a break and the benefits of coaching
By EmaslHowever, life is settling down and I am back and ready to go again (a planned trip to Oz is cheering me up no end) and, without wishing to sound like a hard sell, I really have to say that Life Coaching has helped me get through all this. Not that I have had any for some time - I have not but I did have some coaching a few years ago about another difficulty I was facing and to say that it helped is putting it mildly. I am a staunch member of the Get a Grip school of coping but sometimes you do need somebody just to point you in the right direction and to get you to look at and solve your problems yourselves. No telling you what to do here which is why I would be useless at being a Coach.
I am doing some networking and surfing on behalf of the UK Coaching Partnership and though this may sound like a plug, which in a way, it is I really have come to believe it in and I am a hardbitten old cynic believe you me!
Glad to be back
Mumpreneur Tip: Why You Need To Be Using Social Media...
By MelMumpreneur Tip: We Can Do It!
By Mel
It's missing because people are quick to opt out of the 'we' part. "What do you mean, we?" they ask. It's so easy to not be part of we, so easy to make it someone else's problem, so easy to not to take responsibility as a member of whatever tribe you're part of.
Sometimes it's missing because people disagree about what 'it' is. If you don't know what you're after, it's unlikely you're going to find it.
And it's missing because people confuse cynicism with realism, and are afraid to say "can". They'd rather say 'might' or even 'probably won't'.
Just about everything worth doing is worth doing because it's important and because the odds are against you. If they weren't, then anyone could do it, so don't bother.
Product launches, innovations and initiatives by any organization work better when the key people agree on the goal, believe that they can achieve it and that the plan will work.
Do we have a cynicism shortage? Unlikely.
Successful people rarely confuse a can-do attitude with a smart plan. But they realize that one without the other is unlikely to get you very far.
Count me in. Let's go.
Mumpreneur Tip: How Are You Investing In Yourself?
By MelOk so maybe you're feeling credit crunched and running your business on a shoestring budget so investing in yourself could be the last thing on your mind as you worry about cash flow but I want you to try and shift yourself out of that mindset while you read this. You see it's so easy in business, especially when starting up, just to focus on spending on the bare essentials just to keep the business running but there's a huge difference between spending and investing.
Investing in your business and investing in yourself sends out a powerful message and will help you to attract more business and while it's great to take advantage of free advice and services it's only by investing in something that gets results. When you invest in your business and yourself you are valuing yourself and in turn others will value what you do more too.
I heard at a conference once that the hole that you invest through is the hole that you recieve through. So if you are investing nothing or very little in your business and yourself then the chances are you will be recieving very little in return. If you are serious about business success you can't avoid investing and expect to get great results and 'Successful Investing' formed part of the Millionaire Mumpreneur business success model in my book. Here is an extract from that chapter:
"So what is the key to growth and expansion of a virtual business? When a traditional brick business grows and expands, it builds or leases a bigger building and hires more employees, but that doesn’t apply to an internet-based business. The key to growth and expansionof an online business is for the business owner to always and continuously invest in them. They must be willing to stay on the cutting edge of technology and they must be willing to accept and adapt to changes as they occur. Internet businesses are not buildings. Internet businesses like these are people. They only grow when the person who is driving that business invests in her own knowledge, personal development and ability. Invest in yourself. Your business is you, your computer, your team and a broadband connection, so you could actually operate your virtual business from anywhere. Your business is based upon your own knowledge and your ability. Those are the company ‘assets’ and those are the ones that need to grow and expand constantly so that your business thrives. Expansion and growth are imperative to survival and for an internet business that means expanding and growing the knowledge of the person running the company…you! You must stay on top of new technology and you must expand your knowledge base about your own area of expertise. Things change fast. New information becomes available every day. Consistently putting in the effort to stay on top of things will almost certainly prevent you from falling behind. Keeping up is easier than catching up".
So don't feel guilty about valuing your personal and business development. You are the boss now and it's your responsibility to keep yourself informed, educated and up to date so give yourself the investment you deserve and think about the best way you can invest in yourself today.Mumpreneur Tip: When Advertising Doesn't Work
By Mel
The good old Yellow Pages landed on my mat this week and it reminded me how far things have progressed since yet still too many businesses are wasting money paying to advertise in free resources like this. The Yellow Pages has been replaced by Google and the Encyclopedia is now Wikipedia. Even my local paper gets more unique visitors to the online version each week compared to those who buy a copy. If you take a moment to think about the business model of something like the Yellow Pages you can see how being smarter about how you reach customers will serve you better. For example, the Yellow Pages is free, great, but that also means that I didn't ask for it either. It gets delivered, along with other free local magazin es, whether I actually wanted it or not. The same as junk mail or spam. At least if free papers or magazines are left at a shop, cafe, etc you can choose whether you actually want to pick one up but printing and distributing to as many households as possible is such a waste of paper. Compare placing an ad in a free resource compared to placing an ad online. If you were in the Yellow Pages your ad is stuck there for a whole year. You can't update it to reflect special offers etc like you can with online advertising and unless you diligently ask and record how customers found out about you you'll never know how many people have responded compared to being able to track click throughs and traffic on a website.
Think about how you made your decision to buy a product or service. The chances are that you already had some kind of relationship, or were referred by a friend to that business or person (especially if you were looking for a local service) or you would have seen or read something about the business online either from a Google search or from other websites. Reaching for the Yellow Pages or free magazines is probably your last resort. The reality is that some of the figures you might be quoted like "We distribute 5000 copies" may be inflated and remember 5000 people may not have actually asked for the magazine so what are the chances of them actually reading it throughout and seeing your ad? At least with a website you can attract the ideal kind of customer by having a way for them to < b>'opt in' for information. All the technology is there to help us be more effective with our marketing so why are we still spending money on outdated advertising methods?
At the end of the day, it costs you more to advertise for new customers compared to marketing to customers who have already bought from you so take care of your customers, reward them for referring business to you and take advantage of technology. You'll be helping to save more trees too!
Mumpreneur Tip: Twitter Resources
By MelHere are some free Twitter resources for you to help with your social media campaign. You don't have to do it all at once - just try one thing at a time!
Free Twitter backgrounds
Tools to boost your productivity on Twitter
Personal browser - everything you want to see at once
Twitter directory - search by location
Twitter groups - join one or start one
Keep track of your Twitter stats
Mumpreneur Tip: Good Traffic is Targeted Traffic
By Mel
Some people will tell you that any
traffic is good traffic but the fact is that just any
old traffic is useless when it comes
to growing your business. The only good traffic is
targeted traffic. The kind of traffic that you
need on your website are actually looking
to buy what you are selling or are interested enough to sign up
for more information. Traffic that passes through your website
while on the way to something totally unrelated to the topic of
your website or those who just happen to surf by aren't going to
be making a purchase. They probably aren't even going to be
signing up either. It's better to have
10 potential customers visit your website than a
1000 people who are not the least bit interested in what you are
offering.
All your marketing is for the purpose
of getting TARGETED traffic to your website...
not just traffic. You want this traffic to actually be looking
for products and services like yours. You don't want people who
are looking for free similar products and you aren't looking for
people who aren't interested in or can't
use your product. So how exactly are you going to go
after this targeted traffic? Once you are ready to start actually
going after the traffic, you will need to locate the people who
are your very best potential product buyer prospects. So you get
the attention of these people by: 1. Posting
advertisements for your product where potential
customers can find the ads.
2. Writing articles about how your product can
make your potential customer's lives better, solve their
problems, make them feel better, look better, have more fun, or
provide the information that they are looking for.
3. Finding the blogs and forums where your best
prospects are gathered and are discussing a subject that is
related to what that you are selling.
4. Making it really easy for these potential
customers to find you and your website by having
links appear in as many places on the Internet as you
can possibly find.
5. Capturing names and e mail addresses of customers and
potential customers who do visit your website so that you have
permission to keep in touch with them.
6. Using the list that you build to your greatest
advantage!
Mumpreneur Tip: Why You Must Have a Niche
By MelStop struggling,trying to please everyone and do yourself a favour by choosing the ideal niche for you and be a specialist simply by getting focussed on exactly WHAT you are offering and WHO you are offering it too.
Want to know why nearly every coach or consultant out there will always struggle? Lack of FOCUS. You may think that by offering a general service e.g. corporate coaching, coaching small business owners, personal coaching and life coaching you will attract much more business but in fact you may find being too general about what you do just confuses a prosepective client. Most people would prefer to seek the advice of a SPECIALIST over a GENERALIST.
If you want to become truly attractive to the ideal client you want to work with and have credibility you need to stand for something. When was the last time you heard someone call themselves a life coach? The coaching world has embraced how important it is to niche yourself because people want to be able to turn to someone for a specific area of their lives e.g. relationships, health, wealth etc.
The same is true if you're a generic business or marketing consultant. People want to find the person who can help them with a specific BUSINESS challenge unique to them. You could choose a situation - setting up automated business systems, outsourcing admin tasks, cutting marketing costs etc. or you could focus on a particular business type such as - Solo Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, Coaches, Speakers etc.
Getting really clear
about what you do and who you help also makes your marketing much
easier because now you can talk at ease about
why someone should invest in your services and
use specific words in your advertising copy to
attract the attention of your ideal
clients. This same principle applies to selling
products. No matter what you are selling there will always
be a type of person or people who are more likely to buy your
product over others. Again, taking some time to really think
about who is most likely to buy your product and
doing some market research around that is going to save you time
and money marketing your products in the wrong
places.
Already got a niche? Great, maybe you can niche even further because the more you can specialise the better. Let's say you offer a service to small business owners. Ok, that's a niche but I bet you can niche that further like, would they need to be in a specific geographic location? What kind of businesses might you be best suited to helping? The more questions you can ask about who you ideally want to work with the better chance of success you'll have and the happier you'll be too.
Mumpreneur Tip: What You Can Learn About Marketing From Santa
By Mel
Have you ever thought about what a great brand Santa has? Talk about consistency. Year after year 'brand Santa' delivers the same results. He never let's us down. The emotional appeal that brand Santa brings is incredible. All that excitement and anticipation. That is if you are a child of course! But, that's the point here. Santa's target market is children, always has been.
Although he might have been tempted to appeal to teenagers, adults and everyone. But could you see his magic still working? At the end of the day, it's the consistency that counts and sticking with your niche. Too many small businesses lose focus and try to please everyone. They get tired of their brand and decide to change things around, wasting time and money. Santa has stuck with the same style, colours and image forever. Who else can you think of that wears red and white, rides on a sleigh and delivers presents? Postman Pat? Santa is different. He stands out from the crowd, his marketing message is consistent and we as marketers have much to learn from 'brand Santa'. Ho, Ho, Ho!
Mumpreneur Tip: Lessons From Las Vegas
By Mel
This is more a reflection than an article but I had so many AHA moments, a few DUH, moments and many realisations while I was at the SHINE event is Las Vegas I thought I would share them with you here. Maybe you too could take a few moments to reflect on your business and see what you might need to start doing, stop doing or continue doing. Often, as mumpreneurs we get so caught up in the day to day stuff that we can put the really important stuff like business planning, business expanding and business delegating to one side. Here are some things that came up for me while I was in Vegas, and by the way it was wonderful to be in a room of almost 1000 entrepreneurial women (and some men) to share your deepest thoughts with and feel so supported. My les sons from Las Vegas include:
- There is a 'Prosperity Paradox' in the developed World right now. We have never had so much. There is more than enough of everything. Now more than ever people are searching for more purpose and meaning in their lives because our most basic survival needs are comfortably met.
- I realise just how far I have come since launching the first version of my Supermummy site only 14 months ago. I have so much to be grateful for and am proud of what I have achieved so far.
- Entreprenuers can be easily distracted by the next new strategy to implement in their business before understanding if it's really the right thing to be doing. More success can be gained by letting go of things instead of taking on more things. Constant distraction can lead to overwhelm - not a good place to be!
- You can only get business savvy by doing and taking action. Get over 'failures' quickly, accept that failure is part of success, move on.
- There is a big difference between wishing or hoping for something and being really ready to recieve it. Are you ready for success?
- You must have at least someone in your life who believes in what you are doing and then find a new peer group you can be a part of.
- I realised that although I love working from home and being a role model for an online business I need to find more opportunities to get out in 'the real world'. To address that I'm building up a Speaker portfolio and already have some events booked. Do you know of any events I could speak at?
-
Vegas was great fun and a
real novelty but I realised that nature
and people are what really
inspire me.
-
I realised that my husband
really is Superdaddy! It was his first time ever
managing our family life alone and he
coped far too well and made sure I knew
it!
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