Self Employed Success

When I looked at my business transformations over the past five years, I quickly came to one daring insight: when I tried to copy other people’s business model, I got mediocre results. When I stepped outside of my own comfort zone (as well as what my industry says businesses “should” look like) and created my own business model, business soared!

Tom Volkar says, “Herd mentality works best for the lead bull. If you base your decisions on what others are doing then at best you’ll create a poor imitation of what has worked well for them.”

Transform Your Business by Zigging

You’ve got to be willing to zig when everyone else in your industry zags. What does this mean in practical terms?

• If everyone in your industry sells their service by the hour, sell your service in a monthly package.
• If everyone in your industry has a membership site, create a pay-per-use system instead.
• If everyone in your industry has an email newsletter, offer a weekly audio postcard.
• If everyone in your industry offers webinars, create live events instead.
• If everyone in your industry sells to homeowners, sell to commercial building owners, apartment renters or vacation home owners.

…and the list goes on and on! There are a million big Zigs and small Zigs you can do.

You cannot stand out from the crowd by following the crowd. W. Chan Kim writes in Blue Ocean Strategy, “Companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of the existing demand. As the market space gets crowded, prospects for profits and growth are reduced.”

So instead of trying to compete in a crowded marketplace, find an untapped marketplace by going after an entirely new set of customers or offering a unique blend of products and services that rise you head and shoulders above your competition.

Not Creative? Ha! Impossible!

Ah, but what if the reason you don’t Zig is because you can’t come up with creative ideas? Well, stop trying to do it on your own! Join a mastermind group, brainstorm with friends, hire a mentor. We are all creative beings, solving dozens of problems a day in creative ways.

If you need a kick-start to come up with creative Zigs, find others who will spark your ingenuity. Find a mastermind group or accountability partner that will help you brainstorm ideas.

Don’t Know How?

There’s nothing you can’t learn how to do.

If your excuse for not zigging is because you don’t know how to implement your creative idea, you’ll sabotage your success for sure. Find a book, take a class, talk to colleagues, interview an expert, hire someone who knows how to do it — find a way to learn what you need to learn in order to implement your Zig Idea.

Whatever you do, set your own rules for the game. Don’t let others define what your business looks like.

Women shop, and buy, differently than men. So if you market to women, it’s helpful to know what makes them tick when they’re making a buying decision.

Let’s Start with Some Background Information

Did you know that women control over 51% of the corporate buying decisions in America? And women make 80% of all consumer buying decisions, as well.

Women start businesses at 1.5 times the rate of men and women own 40% of the companies in America.

So whether you’re selling to the large corporate market, small biz market or consumer market, women influence a huge amount of that buying.

What Do Women Want?

There have been lots of studies about the psychology of marketing to women, and books and books written on the subject. It’s really fascinating reading, if you have the time to wade through it.

But if you’re a woman reading this article, the fact is that you don’t have the time. You see, the most important psychological point in marketing to women is that they’re busy and time-constrained. (Do you know any woman in your life who has a ton of leisure time? I don’t!) They’re trying to juggle multiple priorities and what they most wish for are ways to save time and have less stress in their lives.

Tips for Marketing to Women

Knowing that time is important to them, you can alter your marketing to be NOT time-intensive. What does that mean?

1. Get to the point. When writing articles, creating videos, drafting sales copy, designing websites, get to the heart of the matter as quickly as possible. Don’t make her wade through a lot of fluff and extraneous detail: she’ll walk away otherwise.
2. Use bullet  points/sub-headings. When writing, use any device that helps her to scan your material quickly. She can then choose which sections of the writing to delve into in more detail.
3. Micro blog. Use social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook to force you to encapsulate your point in 2 or 3 sentences.
4. Be time sensitive. Explain to her how much time and effort it will take to consume/use your product or service. She needs to know what she’s committing to before she’s willing to buy. It’s not just the investment of money that’s important to her, but the investment of time as well.

If you don’t have time to wade through the dozens of books and studies on the topic, consider taking my Marketing To Women teleseminar series starting on May 10. I’ve combed all the material on the psychology of marketing to women and compiled it into a 3-week teleseminar so you can focus on the most important, most applicable parts of this research for your own marketing efforts.

People always ask me, “How do you get so much done? You always have new class and new services to offer!”

I have an important business fact that I want to share with you: You don’t have to feel overwhelmed by your business or project planning.

There is a way to create your plans, over and over again, that makes you feel confident and energized that you are moving in the right direction.

Just imagine how wonderful you will feel, knowing you are on the right track!

Class date: April 14, 2011

Time: 1:00 to 2:30 PM eastern (yes, 90 minutes!)

Class will be recorded, so if you can’t make it live, you can listen to it later.

Click here for more details on the One Action Now teleseminar >>>

A client told me the other day about a Crazy Client story that just happened to her:

One of her clients emailed her on a Sunday. As a courtesy, she emailed the client back on Sunday evening (normally, she doesn’t work weekends).

Her client then complained that she “didn’t get back to her quickly enough!”

I sent MY client this article on How To Say No.

Hope the article helps you, too. Because you wouldn’t treat a client disrespectfully, you must insist that they treat you with respect…or fire them. There simply is no excuse for bad behavior.

Don’t go after the “once and done client” when you could be thinking about “lifetime clients” instead.

Lifetime clients are those who come back again and again because they love what you have to offer and you’ve listened to their needs — throughout their entire lifetime. Whether it’s their entire human lifetime, the lifetime of their business, the lifetime of their career, or the lifetime of their goals, there are many ways you can help repeatedly.

What changes will they go through in their personal and professional lives that you can help them with?

What’s the next logical step on their path where you can serve them?