Author Archives: admin

Relationship Marketing Tips: Essential Principles to Successfully Ask for What You Want in Your Business

by Suzanne Evans

One action you can implement immediately to help more people and make more money this month is to ask. It seems basic, just ask! It is so often overlooked. Have you asked for more business? Have you asked for more clients? Have you asked people to work with you? It’s really fundamental.

The first thing I’d encourage you to do in asking is understand what you’re asking for. What do you want your clients to look like, to be like? What is an ideal client? Get clear about that and know what you want from a client.

Also, just how do you know when you have it? If you’re going to get really clear about what you’re going to ask for, say, “How will I know when I’m standing in front of or speaking to the person that’s right for me?”

Honor the value of the connection between you and the client. To ask for business, to ask a client to work with you, to ask a stranger if they’re interested in Reiki or coaching or whatever it might be, you have to have a real respect and honor to the connection and relationship between you and the client.

Then the second part is having a plan for asking. “How am I going to ask? Where can I go to ask?” Take that vision that you worked with in part one and apply it to the plan. This is really key. What we don’t ask for we never get. What we don’t seek out never comes to fruition for us.

It’s very powerful to ask for clients and business. A lot of people get scared about it. They say, “I don’t want to ask. I just want people to see my value and come to me.” Do you value yourself? If you’re afraid to ask, I don’t think you do.

Asking is such a powerful tool, because it allows the potential clients to know about you. That’s number one, because people have to know that you’re there to work with you. But more so for you, it leverages the value of what you do, because you share it with others and you ask of them to take a part in your services, your gifts, how you help people.

So make a mini goal for yourself in the next couple of days, “How many people will I ask to work with me, or ask to have a complementary session, or ask to come to a complimentary seminar?”

Also, realize what you’re asking for. Sometimes you’re asking for a complimentary session. Sometimes you’re asking for someone to be a client. It’s all very relative, because certain things are going to be easier for some of you to ask for. Some of you may just be asking for them to be on your newsletter or on a mailing list. Decide what you want to ask for. See what feels comfortable to you and really ask for that.

Now here’s one of the really important factors in asking. After you decide how and what your goal is and where you’re going to ask people for business, be aware that it needs to be continuous. I don’t want you to just spend an afternoon and go, “Okay, I’m going to go ask 10 people. That’s my goal, then I’m done.” I want you to constantly and consistently ask.

Just focus on the asking, because it will prepare you for always being free and open to ask for business. That will serve you for years and years. You’ll automatically start attracting clients.

If you ask for business, if you ask for the opportunity to share your gift with someone, you will automatically, consistently and immediately see a shift in your business.

About the Author: Suzanne Evans owner and founder of Suzanne Evans Coaching, LLC, is the tell-it-like-it-is, no fluff boss of business building. She supports, coaches, and teaches over 30,000 women enrolled in her wealth and business building programs. Having surpassed the seven figure mark herself in just over three years, she’s coached her private clients to total revenues exceeding 8 million dollars. In 2011, she launched her Global Impact Project, a not for profit serving women worldwide in education, entrepreneurship, and equality. More About Suzanne

Post to Twitter

Did You Pay Your Bill?

by Suzanne Evans

Money commands respect.

Money deserves attention.

Money responds to love.

I love to talk about money. I particularly love to talk about the impact money can have on people, the planet, and change. Most of you are reading this because you want to make more money and you want to make a difference. Making a difference starts with your behavior. It launches from how you respect money. Money is energy and the greater respect you have, the more vibrant that energy returns to you. Prosperity is simple:

1. Honor commitments. When you agree to pay for a service, product, program, or item, follow through. Pay your bills on time if you expect others to pay you.

2. 100% responsibility. When “shit” happens, and it will, take 100% responsibility for your finances and communicate with people. People that show up and are willing will always work problems out.

3. Treat your business like a business. GMAC Mortgage, Ford Motor Credit, and Capital One do not let people dishonor their obligations — why would service providers? We certainly do not have to behave like Big Brother, but we could learn a few things about having policies and procedures about payments in our business.

4. Hold the space. My business requires people to meet their obligations and commitments. We always work with people that are willing and responsive, but if not we have standard operating procedures legally. We treat our business like a real business.

5. Pass your money on. Everyone talks about charitable giving, but I am talking about non-charitable. How much do you tip? Do you spread the wealth? Do you know that giving brings you more? (Even when it does NOT give you a tax break?)

6. Love your money. Watch it. Keep an eye on it. Make sure it has a house that takes care of it and brings more of it to you. Track your money and protect your money.

7. Don’t play dumb. Money likes smart people. It likes you to know where it is, how it behaves, and where it goes. The fastest way to go broke is to not know how your money is performing.

8. Do the hard stuff. Talk to clients and customers about their bills, what they owe, and hold the truth about money. When you shy away from money issues with your clients, you shy away from abundance.

Money is not the most important thing in the world, but touches everything that is. If you aren’t paying your bills or holding the space for your clients to pay theirs, you are out of money alignment.

Money commands respect.

Money deserves attention.

Money responds to love.

About the Author: Suzanne Evans owner and founder of Suzanne Evans Coaching, LLC, is the tell-it-like-it-is, no fluff boss of business building. She supports, coaches, and teaches over 30,000 women enrolled in her wealth and business building programs. Having surpassed the seven figure mark herself in just over three years, she’s coached her private clients to total revenues exceeding 8 million dollars. In 2011, she launched her Global Impact Project, a not for profit serving women worldwide in education, entrepreneurship, and equality. More About Suzanne

Post to Twitter

Want to hear a dynamic speaker?

Meet my friend and 10k Club colleague Kristin Thompson. I just SO love her style. She has such inflection and excitement in her voice. She definitely have a passion for what she’s doing.

Here’s one of Kristin’s videos. You can hear more from Kristin and get her free Gravity Jumpstart 4-part video series at www.getgravitynow.com

Post to Twitter

LI Group: Tips for A Business Newbie, Part II

In Part I of this series, I talked about mindset, selecting a niche and defining your ideal client. Today, I’d like to go over business foundation: systems – the backbone of any successful business.

If you don’t have comprehensive processes and systems in place, you’ll likely be inefficient, wasting a lot of time reinventing the wheel every time you perform an activity that you do on a regular basis in your business.

Systems and processes allow you to quickly move through tasks because you’ll always know what you need to do next. You won’t have to stop and think each time, “Now, how did I do that last time?”

Take for instance, a new client intake process. There should be certain items that are done each time you bring on a new client. Here is a list of tasks that were done with every new client that I brought on in my VA company, My Creative Assistant:

  • Send out welcome package with contract, credit card authorization agreement, confidentiality agreement, password spreadsheet, and client questionnaire.
  • Receive signed contract, credit card authorization agreement and completed client questionnaire and password spreadsheet.
  • Add new client to Quickbooks.
  • Process initial payment.
  • Label new client binder and insert documents above.
  • Add new client information to Outlook Contacts.
  • Create new email folder in Outlook and set up rules, so all of their incoming messages are filtered into this folder.
  • Add new client workspace in Central Desktop.
  • Schedule initial consultation.

With this process, I created a simple checklist, so I could check each item off as they were completed. Then, I didn’t have to think “what’s next?”, I simply referred to my process and everything was fast, efficient and smooth.

Anything that you do on  a regular basis should be systemized, saving you time and effort. This is one of the first steps in building a strong foundation for your business.

A helpful resource is Systems of a Successful VA by my good friend and colleague, Kristi Pavlik, a.k.a. The Systems Chick.

What processes and systems can you think of that should be a part of every business’ arsenal?

 

Are you looking to build your VA business? Check out my Virtual Assistant Business Success Blueprint through the VA Training Academy. Comprehensive training to build a successful VA company.

Post to Twitter

Are You Running Your Business As A Business? Or Are You A H.O.?

Do you have an expensive hobby or do you own a business? Do you even know?

I’m constantly amazed at the number of business owners I come across regularly who don’t know where they stand financially at any given time. If you don’t keep an up-to-date record of your income and expenses, how do you know if what you’re putting all your effort into – your blood, sweat, and tears, as they say, is even worth your time?

I’m so intimately familiar with this situation because I used to live it. Imagine my horror at tax time a few years back, when I found out that my outgoing was greater than 50% of my incoming. YIKES!

I was spending all of my waking hours working IN my business – doing and directing client tasks, marketing for new clients, and so on, and so on, that didn’t raise my nose out of my computer long enough to realize that I was falling deeper and deeper into debt. Digging a hole that’s oh so hard to climb out of. I was so busy chasing the almighty buck, I didn’t realize it was going out faster than it as coming in.

This is a definite cue to learn from my mistakes. (Remember, I always say, “OTHER people’s experience is the best [and fastest] teacher.”

Here’s what you should start doing right now:

Keep your records up to date. This can be something as simple as a spreadsheet where you keep track of income and expenses, or as comprehensive (and useful!) as using a program like Quickbooks.

Analyze your P & L. Create profit and loss reports and review them regularly. Are you making money? That’s ultimately the objective of owning our businesses, isn’t it?

Analyze your expenses. One of the easiest ways to make more money (your bottom line) is to eliminate unneccessary expenses. 20 bucks here and there can sure add up in a hurry.

Pay yourself. Treat your business like a real business by paying yourself on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis. Keep your draw consistent from paycheque to paycheque. Have surplus? Give yourself a bonus occasionally, or reinvest it into your business.

Open a separate savings account strictly for taxes. Use this account to keep tax remittance funds, as well as personal income tax dollars set aside, so you’re not scrambling when the tax man comes calling.

So, treat your business as a business and avoid being a “H.O.” – a Hobby Owner, to coin my coach.

Are there other ways you can think of to run a real business? Do share!

Post to Twitter