No means No
After being a work-at-home entrepreneur for over 7 years, I can attest that the toughest item on this list for me, personally, is learning to say no to potential clients or customers. When you work for yourself – especially in the early days – you’re not always sure where that next paycheck is coming from. And even when the customer roster is full this month, you can’t be positive the same will be true next month or the month after, so you tend to take on more work than you can comfortably perform. After all, isn’t a few nights of burning the midnight oil well worth the benefit of having a little more padding in the bank account?
The problem is, working too much to stay ahead causes us stress and job burnout – and it also makes spouses and families a tad angry! So we just exchange one stress point (finances) for another (overwork and family pressure). There is a solution, although you’re not going to like it. Set a limit and stick to it.
I know, I know, this is easier said than done. But I can honestly say that I’ve never had a customer or client disappear into thin air when I told him or her they had to wait a few weeks or months to work with me. In fact, it often shows that you’re in demand and that you can pick and choose who you work with, and when. And that’s a valuable trait, particularly when you want to command top rates for your expertise.
Think about the busiest restaurant you know of: the Hard Rock Cafe, the Cheesecake Factory, etc. The advance reservations notice these establishments require actually increases their mystique and reputation. Making your customers and clients wait can do the same for you!
Decide how many products you’re going to release, how many interviews you’re going to do, how many coaching clients you’re going to work with, how many articles you’ll write, or how many hours you’re going to work per week, and then stop. That’s it – no more.
One of the best ways to keep your work commitments at a tolerable level is to make a commitment to your family. You can start with committing to attending every softball game, every Scout meeting, and every recital. You can promise dinner each evening, or read out of a chapter book every night to your children. This will make you accountable to your own scheduled work day. You may feel a momentary pang of regret or anxiety when you tell a potential client “no” or “wait.” I’m willing to bet it will soon fade when you realize how much less stressed you are on a day-to-day basis, and how much happier your home life is!
You’ve set boundaries for your commitment to your clients. You’ll say the words “no” or “wait” to a client when the time constraints of a new assignment don’t fit within your agenda. You have now become the boss of your time. Does your family know that?
There you are sitting at your desk in your home office, available to everyone – kids, spouse, neighbors, friends – at a moments notice. You wanted to work at home so you COULD be available to your family, but what are the limits? We’ll explore the dichotomy of working at home in order to enjoy the flexibility and availability to the ones you love, and working at home in order to create a successful business which requires focused time away from distractions.
I love to hear your comments and join the newsletter while you are here.
I bet you a dollar you are not setting
priorities.
If the basics of reading and writing are learning your ABCs, the basics of work-at-home success is setting your priorities. If you don’t have a set of priorities by which to guide your business, your day, and your week, you are at the mercy of circumstance. Happenstance is for people who play the lottery; not for entrepreneurs, and definitely not for the Corporate Mom Dropout who has to juggle everything and everybody.
You sit down at the computer to begin work on your to-do list, and the emails start coming in. Instead of having a way to rate the importance and urgency of each request and item on your list, you just respond to whatever is front and center – which is usually whatever email or phone call has come in most recently. Then the end of the day comes, and you still have as many items on your to-do list as you started with. The stress starts to mount as your business goals recede farther and farther into the distance.
So what’s the solution? Setting priorities. When you have a list of goals and priorities, you have a map for your future.
My advice is to set one or two business objectives for each quarter of the year. You may choose to launch a new product the first quarter of the year, revamp your website during the second quarter, create marketing materials for the third quarter, and develop an outsourcing strategy for the fourth quarter.
The following is my favorite process for breaking down a large objective into daily, weekly, and monthly priorities:
- Start with your quarterly objective.
- Ask yourself, what would have to happen this month to achieve this objective?
- What would have to happen this week?
- What would have to happen today?
Once you have defined what needs to happen each day, week, month, and quarter, put those items on your calendar and to-do list with a big star next to them. Now you know what has to be completed every day before you start answering phone calls or emails. No matter what the rest of the day brings, you know you have completed the things that will most move your business forward.
This small routine will help reduce your stress because you’ll no longer lie in bed, wondering what the heck you accomplished that day. Instead, you will have taken concrete steps towards achieving your most important goals. (P.S. This works great with personal goals, too!).
Now that you have your priorities set for each day, week, month, and quarter, how will you know if all that work will fit into your schedule? Let’s take a look at how you can manage those fleeting 24 hours we all have to work within. Stay tuned there is more coming…
I love to read your comments and there is more juicy info in the newsletter so make sure you sign up.
Get Paid More – Right Now!
By Barb Wade, M.A.
Do you dread hearing the words, “So, what do you charge?” Knowing how much to charge and confidently standing behind those fees is the Achilles Heel of many entrepreneurs.
In fact, some service providers feel so much discomfort when stating their fees that they squirm, buckle, stutter, or even apologize when doing so!
But those of us who are also moms have it even tougher because we tend to be self-sacrificing. Moms are so used to giving to everyone else – our children, our spouses, the church, the PTA – that it can feel odd or even “wrong” to give to ourselves by being well paid.
Here’s a fact: a significant number of coaches, consultants, and service-based entrepreneurs charge way too little – especially if they are also moms. They undervalue their worth and are quick to discount their already low rates when asked. And many feel that making real money and “being of service” are somehow incompatible. But nothing could be further from the truth.
You deserve to be richly paid for the valuable gifts you share with the world!
Your specific expertise, knowledge, and know-how, and its ability to enhance and transform your clients’ lives and/or businesses is highly valuable. Your clients desperately need the information and instruction that you have to offer in order to solve their biggest, most challenging problems.
So why is it so hard to charge appropriately for the tremendous benefits that you bring your clients?
There are many factors that make this a problem area, including “money barriers” — both internal (in your mind) and external (real, practical issues) — that block the flow of abundance. Here are some tips to help you master your response to that dreaded question, “so, what do you charge?”
First of all, answer this question only after you have laid the right groundwork for your prospect to understand the real value of what your are offering. Some people are “bottom line” types and want to get right to the price. You can gracefully redirect them by saying “I’m happy to talk about that with you, but first I’d like to get a little bit more information about you and your needs…”
In order to command higher fees, your clients must understand the incredible results that your coaching, consulting, or service provides for them, and the impact of those results! You are not selling your “time,” you are selling the tangible and measurable outcomes that your clients will enjoy, and that will solve their biggest problems. What are those results worth to them?
Explore where your prospective client is now, and what the cost is of their current situation. Hint: That “cost” is not just monetary, but can include lost time, poor health, bad debt, missed opportunities, broken relationships, or whatever pertains to their circumstances. Then, paint a vivid picture of what is possible for them with your assistance. What will they be able to do, have, or experience at that point that they don’t now?
It’s incredibly important to have “social proof” that allows your clients to trust that you can, in fact, get them to the results that they so desperately crave. One particularly strong form of social proof is to provide testimonials from “raving fan” clients who are thrilled with your services and the results they achieved from working with you.
Another form of social proof that is equally strong is your own personal story. Were you once in the situation that you find most of your clients in, and did you overcome the obstacles you faced to achieve a significant level of fulfillment and success? Tell your story! People want to work with those that they can relate to, and who are living examples of the success that they want for themselves.
Also, cite any official credentials that you may have – degrees, training programs, certifications, etc. Anything that adds credibility will assist you in charging higher fees.
Finally, when it is time to answer the question, speak with authority and confidence. Tell them what you charge and use the word “investment” instead of cost, because no matter what the price, working with you is an investment in themselves or their business. Then be quiet! Let them think about it for a moment. It’s easy to want to start explaining or backpedaling in order to break the tension. Don’t. Wait for them to respond, then deal with any objections they may have.
Perhaps the most important factor in commanding the high fees you desire is how you, personally, feel about yourself and your “right” to be paid such amounts! For whatever reason, many women entrepreneurs in particular tend to discount what they know, and the value of that information. This is a terrible hindrance to your success!
A good strategy is to make a list of all of the contributions you have made to your clients’ lives and the results they have attained. If needed, ask your clients, friends, colleagues, mentors, business partners, and anyone else that you have worked with to tell you what you helped them experience, achieve or create.
You must also remind yourself that what comes so easily to you – either naturally, or because of years of study and experience, or from a combination – is neither obvious nor comes easily to those in your target market. Do not undermine their interest by being self-deprecating about your skills and talents – if you do, so will they!
So, in order to charge what you’re worth (and get it!), take the time to truly embrace the value of your personal skills and expertise. And then practice stating your fees with confidence and conviction.
For more information on our featured Corporate Mom Dropout visit www.barbwade.com
Featured Article by Janice Clark of BizMSolutions.com
One of the first things I do when I speak with a client about their social media strategy is to ask what their goal is. I try to determine early on what they are hoping to accomplish by using social media so I can ensure their activities are in line with their goals.
The first thing people always say is, “I want to get clients”. That’s certainly an excellent goal to have and, in all honesty, everyone needs more clients. No one ever says, “I’d like to make some friends” or “I’d like to donate my time to others”. Most of us aren’t using these networking sites strictly for personal reasons. We mean business! Before you jump into social media and begin looking for clients, consider this. Getting new clients isn’t the only way to get results! You must take consistent action that is designed to produce ongoing and long term results for your business!
All of our professional activities get results. Those activities may include developing mutually beneficial relationships with others or submitting content on a regular basis in order to gain visibility and/or recognition from target market influencers. The results those activities achieve come in the form of web/blog traffic, press, comments, emails, friends, etc. These activities don’t always have a direct financial impact but if we plan those activities correctly then the non-financial impact they do have should result in a positive financial impact.
Participating in groups, having conversations online and answering questions for others all make an impact. Creating strategic partnerships and gaining visibility among your target market definitely makes an impact. If your actions are meaningful and positive then the impact comes in the form of more visits to your website, more members on your Facebook page and more subscribers to your mailing list. All of that translates into more opportunities for you to promote your products and services and it should translate into sales at some point.
When someone’s only goal is to get more clients, they very often get disappointed early on. Clients don’t just appear when you set up a profile. It takes time to find your audience, determine what they are looking for, build relationships, gain trust and provide them with the solution that will help make a financial impact on their business. It takes time to gain visibility among your target market, build relationships with reputable influencers in the industry and reap the benefits of regular referral business.
Are you so focused on your main goal of getting clients that you forget to get out there and participate in other strategic activities? Are you creating relationships and taking action that will impact your business financially in the long term?
As a business owner I’m always looking for conversations and strategic relationships. In addition, I love helping other business owners find the same! What actions do you need to take in order to make an impact on your business? What types of relationships are you looking for? I invite you to post your Facebook page link here (LinkedIn and Twitter as well if you’d like), introduce yourself and share your business with us. Take the first step towards creating relationships and taking action that produces results!
More information on Janice Clark, President of BizMSolutions.
At BizMSolutions we cater to the small business owner. In fact the majority of our clients are mompreneurs who own their own business and are facing challenges with juggling a business, home and family. It’s that type of schedule that BizMSolutions can help with!
We assess your needs, create an action plan designed just for you and show you how to leverage tools such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in order to build more profitable relationships around your brand.
When a stay-at-home business mom wants to reach a wide audience, she can turn to a social radio network such as http://www.blogtalkradio.com or other podcast outlets (seehttp://www.podcastdirectory.com for a list of sites). These outlets offer several different ways to spread the word: as a caller to a show, as a a guest on a show or as a host.
As a caller to a show she can let the listeners know she’s out there and available, but it’s hard to let friends, family and business contacts know beforehand.
In order to be a guest she only needs to find her category, click on a host’s name to get to an About page, which will probably have contact info. Once she’s accepted for the show, she can e-mail and Facebook blast the time and place of the interview to her client list, friends and family. If the listener registers with blogtalkradio and posts a picture, it will appear on the host’s page as either a listener or fan. The show is archived and always available to future audiences.
The corporate mom dropout can check the show’s audience by noting the number of listeners and fans. If it’s a small number, maybe there’s a different site to promote her business. I’ve appeared on several shows, and a recent talk about my book, Corporate Mom Dropouts, increased my book sales by 40 percent.
Finally, if she can find the time, the business mom can host her own show. The site is easily set up for the entrepreneurial mom to get on the air. All she needs is a computer and a phone. Also, it’s another way to increase SEOs. And it’s free.
When working on a marketing plan, the home-based business mom has to wring every drop from the social media for the greatest possible exposure, and talk radio is a good way to go.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
GIFT #2: 
