Self Employed Success

When asking your customers for their opinion, do you ask enough people?

I recently asked my customers (all small busines owners) for feedback about what time of day, and day of week, they prefer to take teleclasses. When the first 10 or 20 responses came in, it was clear that everyone wanted teleclasses on Wednesdays at 7:00 PM. Wow! Who would have guessed?

I should re-schedule all my teleclasses, right?

Wrong!

When I re-discovered my patience and waited to get the full response from 300 or 400 people, the results were completely, totally different. When I waited for a larger sample size of survey results, new and important facts emerged: Wednesday was still popular, but of equal popularity was Tuesday and Thursday. More importantly, because I waited for a larger response group, I discovered the 7:00 PM timeslot slide in popularity, to be replaced strongly by 12:00 – 2:00 timeframe.

Take the “What Time for Teleclasses?” survey here.

Had I made business decisions based on the first 20 responses, I would have created a disaster.

When you have a business idea or decision to make, do you just ask five or ten people? Stop destroying your business by using small sample sizes in your surveys! The more people you ask, the better quality of results you’ll get.

Read more about the fallacy of small sample sizes, also known as “hasty generalizations:”

http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/hasty-generalization.html

In the 1960s, Napoleon Hill, author of “Think And Grow Rich” appeared on a series of television shows, talking about his principles of success. Even thought Think and Grow Rich as first published in 1937, the ideas are as fresh today as they were then. (Truth is eternal, eh?)

The first nine of these TV shows are posted them on my website (below). I believe there are 17 of these TV shows in all, but the additional ones are not on YouTube yet. As soon as they become available, I will post them on my site, too.

http://www.thesuccessalliance.com/resources.html

I’ve been teaching my basic Mastermind Group class for 3 years, and I’ve asked all my students, “How can I make these classes better for you?”

Many students asked me for a class specifically about marketing their mastermind group, finding new members and managing the administration part of the group.

In addition, EVERYONE said, “Please give us more tips on facilitating a mastermind group!”

Here’s what I’ve got for you – three new mastermind group classes (woohoo!):

• Class 1: Start Your Own Mastermind Group (class begins November 5) – If you are new to mastermind groups, this class is for you. This class focuses on all the preliminary details of starting your first group.
• Class 2: Market and Manage Your Mastermind Group (class begins December 2) - If you have already developed your mastermind group concept and need to find new members, this class is for you. This class focuses on letting people know about your group through powerful marketing techniques, selecting the best members, communicating with members between meetings, using teleconferencing services, and handling mastermind group administration.
• Class 3: Mastermind Group Facilitator Training (class begins October 5) - If you want to take your mastermind group facilitation skills to a whole new level and really help your group members be successful, this class is for you. This class is limited to a small number of students so that everyone gets a chance to practice their mastermind facilitation skills with the group.

For more class description, specifics about topics we will cover, and registration details:
http://www.thesuccessalliance.com/classes.html

Every weekend, my husband (who is also my business partner) and I take one day off from our busy schedules, either to go somewhere interesting and relaxing, or to visit with family and friends.

We’re just like you: we run our own businesses (which could keep us working 24/7 if we’re not careful) and we have things that need to get done around the house, too. Plus the cars need servicing, the cats need to go to the vet, laundry piles up, and food shopping is a necessary evil. You know the drill.

But being so busy all the time leads to mental, emotional, physical and spiritual fatigue. We can’t be our best in our business if we are constantly doing, doing, doing.

For instance, this weekend we spent the day Sunday at the Delaware Water Gap. There are lovely sites to see here, including some stunning waterfalls. I happily spent the day snapping photos, hiking to the top of the waterfall (ouch!), and puttering around Peter’s Valley Craft Store. I didn’t think about business once.

When I came into the office this morning, my head was clear, my senses calm, and my creativity soaring. I got more done this morning than I could have gotten done in TWO days if I hadn’t taken Sunday as a rest day.

Many people think they can’t afford to take time off. Trust me: one day away from the computer, the phone, the house, the office will gain you far more than the time you took off.

Play hookey…take a day off and do something fun, inspiring, delightful!

What do you do to take time off?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLZi9aesxqw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqgGlQtFkgs

Much of marketing is about persuasion. (Note that I do not say “manipulation.”)

Dictionary.com defines the verb “to persuade” like this:

1. to prevail on (a person) to do something, as by advising or urging: We could not persuade him to wait. 

2. to induce to believe by appealing to reason or understanding; convince: to persuade the judge of the prisoner’s innocence. 

So persuasion, especially in marketing, is all about encouraging someone to take action (call me to talk about your needs, sign up for my program, buy my ebook, etc.), as well as convincing someone by helping them to understand information, ideas and/or benefits.

CNN/Fortune Magazine recently posted a self-quiz entitled How Persuasive Are You? The quiz helps you to understand your own first reactions to a series of events, to see how much you use persuasion in your marketing and sales efforts. Go ahead, take the quiz! It’s an eye-opener!

I’m absolutely fascinated by the psychology of marketing: what makes people pay attention to a marketing piece, and more importantly, what persuades them to take action and buy. I’m reading several books on the topic right now, and as soon as I compile my notes, I’ll write more about the topic in this blog and on my ezine.

I think the psychology of marketing will make all the difference in the world to your success. I’ll keep you posted.

I did an interesting test over the past few months, with astonishing results.

I sell an ebook about mastermind groups on three of my sites. I’ve been tracking the sales results for 4 years, across three different sites. Conversion rates (the percent of people who purchase as compared to the total number who view the page) ranges from 2% to 14%, depending on which site.

A second edition of the ebook was launched this year, and on each site I used this book cover graphic, with the “second edition” graphic on it:

Six weeks ago, I ran a test, removing the current book cover graphic and replacing it with the exact same book cover, but WITHOUT the “second edition” graphic on it, like this:

An amazing thing happened: conversion rates FELL by 75% using the plain book cover without the “second edition” graphic.

I did not change the book cover graphic on the other two sites, and their conversion rates remained stable.

Conclusion: People who visited the article page felt more trust when an ebook was in it’s 2nd edition, deducing that an ebook that had been updated was a popular ebook that contained up-to-date information.

As we know, trust is a key element in marketing, especially ecommerce. What are you doing to instill trust in your site visitors?

You can see the new graphic in place in the article, here:

http://www.passionforbusiness.com/articles/mastermind-group.htm

I just created a new “fan page” on Facebook for The Success Alliance.

Here’s an online space where Mastermind Group Facilitators can gather and share, and learn tips and techniques for starting and running their mastermind groups:

http://www.facebook.com/mastermindgroup