Make Your Business a Well-Oiled Machine (and You’ll Have More Clients)

I believe the key to more clients, more in-come, and more time off, is making your business run like a well-oiled machine. Right now, you may be handling everything yourself, or perhaps delegating a little bit of it. The problem with that is your business is probably running YOU, as opposed to you running your business. And that probably means lots of stuff is falling through the cracks, which then means lost opportunities and fewer clients and less mo-ney coming in.

In your business, Consistency is crucial; Chaos is costly (both financially and time-wise). When things run like a well-oiled machine, when everything’s organized and proven, there is much less room for chaos. The goal is to have things run on their own, or by someone else, so you can focus on growing your business even more, while having more time off to enjoy yourself.

Even if you don’t have a full staff of people helping you, you can make your business run smoothly, with SYSTEMS. The key to systems is to not re-invent the wheel each time you do something in your business. Instead, when something works, document it, and then do it again and again. Then, it becomes a system, and if the system is good, it will create results over and over again too.

You may be asking yourself, “OK, I get it. But HOW exactly do I create a system for something? I’m not sure where to start.” It’s actually really simple.

1. Notice what’s falling through the cracks, takes up a lot of your time unnecessarily each week or creates a lot of stress for you.
   
2. Find a way to cluster, group, delegate or put these on autopilot.
   
3. Then set it up so it works on its own, or can be handled easily, efficiently, and without fail.
   
4. Create checks and balances so you’re not abdicating, but know that instead, you can breathe more easily, knowing it’s all handled.

You can systematize many things in your business and in your personal life. In your business, you can systematize each slice of your marketing pie (every slice of the pie represents a way you PULL clients in—we go in depth into this in the home study system), also your schedule, your client management, your calendar, and your email. In your personal life, you can systematize your food shopping, your doctors’ appointments, your personal email, your dry-cleaning, your errands, your banking. You name it, it can probably be systematized.

The beauty of everything being on autopilot or handled smoothly is that you set up the infrastructure for a FULL practice, even before you fill your practice. What happens is, when you DO hit full practice status, you will avoid all the breakdowns that cause most businesses to fail. At the same time, you make more time for marketing (the stuff that brings in clients) and for more clients as well.

Your Assignment:

Give it a try.

1. Make a long list of everything that’s falling through the cracks, takes up a lot of your time unnecessarily each week, or creates a lot of stress for you.
   
2. Find a way to cluster, group, delegate, or put these on autopilot.
   
3. Set it up so it works on its own or can be handled easily, efficiently, and without fail.
   
4. Create checks and balances so you’ re not abdicating, but you can keep tabs on it regularly.

You’ll be amazed to see how much of a “problem-free zone” your business becomes. That will give you a lot more time to focus on building the business, a lot more room for new clients, and more time to simply enjoy yourself. You’ll have more time for vacation, for self-care, and for spending yummy quality time with the people you love being with. And that’s what being self-employed is really about.

Now, you may have specific questions you want answered about how to systematize your marketing. If so, I recommend getting a copy of the Client Attraction Home Study System™. It gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid marketing systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at www.TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

© 2007 Client Attraction, LLC. All Rights Reserved

Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System™ and www.ClientAttraction.com, the proven step-by-step program to attract more clients, make more m’oney being self-employed, while having more time off to enjoy it all. To receive your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and get weekly how-to articles on attracting more clients, visit www.ClientAttraction.com.

Think Like An Instant Billionaire

In sifting through emails from a recent R&D survey I launched, I read the responses, and honestly, I wanted to cry. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I haven’t been aware that most solopreneurs have very low expectations of what could be made in self-employment (I’ve been at this for almost 8 years after all!), but I just didn’t know how LOW. Until I got the responses to the following question: “What is the most amount of money you see yourself making as a self-employed person?” Not just this year, but EVER.

Close to 200 solopreneurs (mostly female) wrote in and shared with me their “Most-I’ll-ever-make-in-a-year” numbers. What shocked me was that the number itself was really LOW and the majority of people wrote in numbers within a short range: between $50,000 and $75,000. Sure, a couple of them wrote in $150,000, but even that seemed like a far cry from what I *know* is possible, when you shift the way you work, get good marketing in place, create systems for everything, outsource, and set up leveraged and passive streams of income.

But what really got me choked up was they didn’t BELIEVE it was possible and worse, some didn’t feel they deserved it. Their MINDSET wasn’t accustomed to thinking BIG, and truthfully that made me very sad, almost depressed. So I went about adding it to my Client Attraction coaching curriculum.

I had to find a way for them to stretch their thinking of what might be possible for them. Then I thought of an assignment I’d gotten years ago from my very first coach, Talane Meidaner, author of Coach Yourself To Success. Back when $3,000 a month seemed like a BIG goal for me to reach in my private practice, she asked me to pretend I was an instant billionaire. The goal was to expand what I believed was possible for me and to do it in just 5 minutes’ time.

Essentially, this Billionaire Game was about tapping into my every wish, desire, dream, and hope I’ve ever thought about. Where I wanted to travel, what I wanted life to look like, what I wanted to have, how I wanted to set up my business. What I liked about this exercise is the 5 minute limit didn’t allow me to think too much and instead to just do it.

So, I set my timer and frantically wrote down all the things I wanted for my life, and my business. It was a LONG list, and when I was done, it felt actually freeing to see what I’d written down. What I realized is many of the things on the list weren’t that far of a stretch, and I could live many of them NOW, if I made a few changes. But it also got me to start dreaming and imagining BIGGER things for my life.

The coolest part is it helped me expand what was possible for me. Things aren’t THAT out of reach and you can live a billionaire lifestyle now, which then feeds your mindset even more that you DESERVE to make mo.re.

When I look back at the list I wrote back then, it’s really cool to see I’m pretty much living that exact life now. (Although I still don’t have a live-in spa chef and haven’t traveled to India and Vietnam for a month each yet, but those will come.) :)

Your Assignment:

Give it a try. This game will help you get past your restrictions around money. Grab a paper and pen. Imagine you’ve just become the billion-dollar lottery winner. Not just a million. You now have more money than you’ll ever be able to spend.

The condition of winning; however, is you must write down 100 different things, whatever you want to be, do, or have on a piece of paper, and you have only 5 minutes to do so. So write fast, without over-thinking. Remember to write down every wish, desire, dream, and hope you can possibly think of.

Set the kitchen timer and see if you can come up with 100 different things. Don't worry about any practical considerations of your list. Don't let anything limit or stop you. You can do, be, or have anything you want. This is about expanding possibilities. Most of us start out way too small.

I promise you one thing. This will not only affect your mindset about what’s possible for you, but it will also affect your Client Attraction. The more you begin to LIVE like a billionaire (on whatever your budget is), the more Client Attractive you will be. Try it and let me know how it goes.

© 2007 Client Attraction, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System™ and http://www.clientattraction.com/, the proven step-by-step program to attract more clients, make more m’oney being self-employed, while having more time off to enjoy it all. To receive your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and get weekly how-to articles on attracting more clients, visit http://www.clientattraction.com/.

Is Your Business Card Useless or Is It Client Attractive?

You can have a business card that’s useless or one that gets you clients. Which do you want? Your business card should be considered a serious sales tool, something that someone will look at and get a very good idea not only at what you do, but what you can do for them.

If you’ve got just one chance to make an impression (in person or not) and you’ve got the space, use it well. Make sure people know what you do, really DO, when they read your business card. Give them a compelling reason to call you to talk about working together. Or perhaps you want them to visit your website or sign up for your ezine (e-mail newsletter). The idea is to get prospects in ACTION, just by using your card.

Here’s an example for you: I got a call from a prospect a while back, saying she was ready to work with me to help her attract new paying clients. She wanted to talk to me because she needed to see exactly how I worked and what my rates were. She had her credit card in hand and was ready to start.

The funny thing is, we’d never met. She wasn’t referred by any of my clients or colleagues. Instead, she had found my card in a doctor’s office close to 50 miles away. Now, I can ASSURE you I had never been to that doctor’s office and I hadn’t gone to that part of the state in over a year, but somehow my card found her and compelled her to want to work with me. That card probably cost me no more than 10 cents. Not bad for a return on investment on a marketing piece and the fact that I wasn’t even there in the first place!

OK, so what should you put on your business card to make it Client Attractive in a networking situation? It should obviously have your phone number(s), every way to reach you, and can even have a set of PULL marketing questions on the back that invite the reader of the card to consider working with you. It’s recommended that you add your tagline to the card. And use the back of it if you can!

My business card also prompts colleagues to refer potential clients to me even though we’d only met once at a workshop I’ve given or at a networking meeting. The information on the back allows the people holding the card to self-qualify or screen themselves as to whether or not they are an ideal client for me. It gives referral sources ways of describing what you do clearly and effectively when talking to others about you. It has an invitation to call, which can make all the difference between getting new clients from your card and not.

The objective should be to have a business card that has your ideal prospect say, “Wow! I need you!” when they’ve read your card. The key is to keep it legible, but to have real Client Attractive information there, so that it works as part of your sales force, even when you’re not there to sell for yourself. (By the way, there’s also a copy of my own business card with all the text, front and back, in the Client Attraction Home Study System™. Why reinvent the wheel when you can model what I have on my own card?)

Your Assignment:

Ask yourself: What does my business card say to my prospects? How do I differentiate myself from all of my competitors with my business card alone? Am I actually attracting new business because of it? Is there a call to action, an invitation to do something specific, a compelling offer, or a point of differentiation that makes me stand out?

Also ask yourself: What are people I network with REALLY doing with my business card once they go home from where they met me? Is it going in the circular file (i.e., the garbage) because they can’t tell what I really do for a living and what I can do for them?

Business cards are an underestimated marketing tool, one that you will use most often to get new business. Instead of using a basic (boring) card that’s essentially useless, it’s time to create one that gets clients to call YOU.

While you’re at it, start optimizing more of your marketing materials so they actually work to get you more clients. If you need help with this, get a copy of the Client Attraction Home Study System™. It’s everything you need to know to create a marketing message that will appeal to the best clients for you. It gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid marketing systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at www.TheClientAttractionSystem.comm.

© 2007 Client Attraction LLC. All Rights Reserved

Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System™ and www.ClientAttraction.com, the proven step-by-step program to attract more clients, make more m’oney being self-employed, while having more time off to enjoy it all. To receive your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and get weekly how-to articles on attracting more clients, visit www.ClientAttraction.com.

Did You Get Lazy In Marketing? (If You Want More Clients, Do What You USED To Do)

It’s a phenomenon that happens to most people in business for themselves after a few years. When solo-entrepreneurs first get started in marketing their business, they have gusto, they have energy, and many take a no-excuses approach to getting clients. They’re WILLING to do what it takes, and they do it often (most of them).

But after a few years, they begin to rest on their laurels, they get lazy, and after a while, they stop doing what they used to do to get clients. Some stop networking; some stop doing free intro classes, either in person or over the phone; some no longer do as much speaking as they used to. They’ve slowed down their marketing, and then they wonder what’s happened to their pipeline: it’s empty.

Oh, and I hear a whole bunch of excuses as to why they’re no longer doing these things, too. There’s always a YEAH-BUT… “I don’t FEEL like doing that anymore,” or “I’ve already done that, it won’t work again,” or even “I’m tired, I don’t want to work that hard.” Some even begin to wonder if they should stay self-employed, ready to give up.

As a result of the excuses, the well continues to dry up and they find themselves digging the well when they’re thirsty (Not fun: it creates sleepless nights and financial troubles.) Then, the fear sets in and they scramble for NEW things to do. Ever done that?

It seems they want to reinvent the wheel. They’re looking for new ways of doing things and this creates a sometimes frenetic, frantic approach to getting clients. I believe this ties into the “Bright Shiny Object Syndrome” we talked about last week, always looking for something new to do, something exciting, while leaving behind the proven stuff.

However, what I’ve learned over the years is, doing something new doesn’t always create results as quickly. The systems aren’t as easy to put in place and there’s always a learning curve for new stuff. What clients are surprised to hear is that, instead of creating BRAND new strategies, sometimes, we begin by going back to doing the tried-and-true, proven things that worked very well for us in the past. We go back to the basics: Marketing Pie 101.

Why reinvent the wheel when you can go back and do the simple things that are proven to work?

YOUR ASSIGNMENT:

My thoughts on this: You either have EXCUSES or you have RESULTS.

So, my questions for you are:

• What have you been UNWILLING to do recently to get clients that USED to work for you?
  
• Have you stopped doing something that you did regularly in the beginning?
  
• Where have you gotten lazy?
  
• What used to work for you in the early days?
  
• Are you doing this now?
  
• Are you WILLING to do this now?

If now’s the time for you to ramp up your client load, then stop everything and take a look at your Marketing Pie. Which slices of the pie are you implementing regularly? Are you not being consistent with your marketing?

It’s time to go back to the basics. And, it’s time to recommit. The funny thing is, when you recommit and you start doing these things again, they WORK. And what happens is, you start getting clients, more mo’ney starts pouring in, and you begin to LIKE doing these things again. Marketing becomes FUN again. Your whole demeanor changes. And, you instantly become more Client Attractive as a result. THEN, once the foundation is in, you can start adding in all the new stuff. Try it. It always works for me and my clients.

Now, if you’re stuck with what to do to fill your practice in the FIRST place, then follow a step-by-step system that feels easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ avoids the “Bright Shiny Object Syndrome” and instead gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at http://www.TheClientAttractionSystem.com/.

© 2007 Client Attraction LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System™ and http://www.clientattraction.com/, the proven step-by-step program to attract more clients, make more m’oney being self-employed, while having more time off to enjoy it all. To receive your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and get weekly how-to articles on attracting more clients, visit http://www.clientattraction.com/.

Stop “Moving Your Own Piano” (You’ll Then Attract More Clients While Making More)

Quote: “Invest three percent of your income in yourself (self–development) in order to guarantee your future.” – Brian Tracy

Sometimes, the signs that it’s time to invest in taking your business to go to the next BIG level show up without notice. Take this past Monday, for example. The second call of my Preview Teleseminar Series for my workshop was scheduled and I was set to interview two inspiring and motivating solopreneurs on how they use the Client Attraction systems daily to make well into the 6–figures. We had close to a thousand entrepreneurs registered for the call and I was excited to host it.

Then, the unthinkable happened. As instructed, hundreds of people starting showing up 10 minutes early to make sure they would make it onto the line before it was maxed out. As I was greeting them, I kept asking if my two featured guests were on the line. My heart kept sinking further and further into my stomach as I realized neither of them could get on the line as moderators.

Call it a systems glitch, call it a disaster, there was nothing I could do. Emails were going back and forth, with my special guests telling me they were indeed on the line but no one could hear either of them. I would have paid ANYTHING at that moment to be able to get an operator on the line to fix it for me. Anything.

I was crumbling inside, unsure of what to do. Have the call WITHOUT my two featured guests or reschedule it entirely? I chose to go on (perseverance) and asked everyone to hang up and dial in again, and was then able to get ONE of my guests on the moderator line. I interviewed her and it went great. Then, as she hung up to let the other guest onto the moderator line, I got cut off OF MY OWN CALL! I tried several times to get back onto the line and was blocked out for several minutes. (I found out later that Mercury was in retrograde.)

The whole thing unfolded like that scene from the movie Swingers when he leaves those messages, one after the other, sinking deeper and deeper into trouble. Have you seen it? Finally, I got on as a “regular” participant and had to keep the line un–muted for the rest of the call.

As I mentioned, I would have done (and paid) ANYTHING to be able to press a button and get an operator to help me. Throughout this episode, my intuition kept nudging at me saying, “Fabienne, you should have invested in your business and gotten the help you needed BEFORE this happened.” But after years of frugally using basic services, I’d gotten too lazy and perhaps too complacent to spring for that PAID bridge line the million–dollar info–marketers are using.

The good news is, the call ended up being a huge hit. People wrote me to tell me how inspiring it was, how motivated they got as a result and ironically, no one mentioned the technical difficulties. Several people signed up for the workshop as a direct result of that call, and I was thrilled that no one even brought up the snafus. But I learned three MAJOR lessons:

1. Persevere. No situation is ever as bad as YOU think it is. You may be crumbling inside, but in other people’s perceptions, it’s just another day at the office. Keep going. It will always work itself out.
2. Let others take care of details for you so that you can focus on your “genius work”, the stuff that actually makes you mo.ney. You see, Sinatra didn’t move his own piano each time he sang at a gig. He had a team in place to handle those details so that he could focus on two things: Singing and Getting More Gigs. And that’s what you should be focusing on too: Working With Your Clients and Getting More Clients. Everything else can be delegated.
3. Sometimes, it’s time to put the frugal part of you behind and REALLY invest in y.our business. No more holding back. When it’s time to grow, it’s also time to take out your wallet and INVEST in making mo.re. My experience has been that, when I do invest in my business, it always comes back to me at least 4 to 10 times over. And although “money” is usually the excuse I’ve used for not doing something (and I’m not the only one, you have too!), I’ve found that if I really look at a situation, I almost always have the resources to invest or can find a way to get them.

Here’s what’s going to happen as a result of my lessons this week: 1) I will be investing in that paid bridge line with all the bells and whistles (and an OPERATOR) and in the success of my business at the same time. If I want to reach a million–dollar business, then I’ve got to have the systems in place to make that happen. 2) I will add even more team members to my staff, so that I can focus on creating more high–value content and Client Attraction programs to help even more people succeed. 3) I will be less “hard on myself” when something I can’t control in the moment happens. It too shall pass.

Just for the purpose of today’s article, I’m adjusting Brian Tracy’s quote from above:

“Invest three percent of your income in yourself [and your business] in order to guarantee your future.”

Your Assignment:

How will YOU invest in your business this week? Notice what you have NOT taken advantage of because you’re using the excuse of “not having enough money.” Using that excuse is an insidious form of self-sabotage. It’s a mindset that keeps you playing small and limits your growth. Time to stop being frugal and take action. The money will naturally show up to help you pay for it (it always does.)

Like many others, you might be having trouble changing that mindset on your own. It’s probably the limiting belief that once you get to the next level, you’ll feel overwhelmed. If so, make it a point to join us at the Client Attraction workshop this coming August. I’m serious. We’re going to totally change that limiting mindset, once and for all. In addition to all the marketing techniques, we’ll uncover the limiting beliefs, self–doubt, and self–imposed sabotaging behavior that are currently keeping you from having what you want in your business and your life. You’ll walk away with everything you need (including the SYSTEMS), so that you FINALLY have more clients, make the mon.ey you deserve, and have a lot more time off to enjoy it all. I can’t wait to meet you in person. You can get more info and sign up here: http://www.clientattractionworkshop.com/.

© 2007 Client Attraction LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System™ and http://www.clientattraction.com/, the proven step-by-step program to attract more clients, make more m’oney being self-employed, while having more time off to enjoy it all. To receive your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and get weekly how-to articles on attracting more clients, visit http://www.clientattraction.com/.