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Mindset – How You Do Something Is How You Do Everything

Tara Jacobsen — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:37:02 +0000

So today’s post – how you do something is how you do everything – is more mindsetty and less marketingy, we will be back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow!

So what does that mean? To me, it means that if I have integrity in my business and my home, then I will have it across the board and not have to worry that I am falling out of being in alignment with what I feel inside, what I talk about when I speak and how I coach my coaching clients. Soooo…here are the ways that I do everything (would love if you think about how you do things to try and make sure your business is in alignment – it could also be a great exercise for creating a mission statement for your business).

Everyone Matters

Just the other day a dear friend told me that someone said her business was not a valid model and that she should not dream of charging anyone for her services. OHHHH that made me mad! Especially because they had not paid her for work performed.

I figured out a long time ago that it is important to listen to people and what their thoughts, goals and likes are. When I do a one hour marketing call, I spend the majority of time listening to what they like to do, what they have done in the past that works and figuring out based on those criteria what they should do going forward. As a young buck marketing “expert” I didn’t do that. I would come in like a bull in a china shop and tell them what they should do based on what my world view was…not good!

First off, I DO think her business model is valid and secondly, be careful about what you say about someone else’s dreams. My respect for the person who said that decreased greatly and I will not be recommending them or working with them in the future.

Everything Matters

Brian Tracy talks about this A LOT. I have a recording of his that I listen to frequently that speaks to this over and over, everything matters, everything matters. This is another way of saying, how you do anything is how you do everything.

This one speaks to the way that you conduct your business and your life. If you have a high work ethic and get a lot done, you probably have a high work ethic with your home and your family too (if you don’t, then look at your priorities and make sure you are consistent with everyone, especially the people who matter!). If you have trouble getting things done or finished, then that is probably systemic and something you should work on with a coach or trainer to make it a habit in your business.

As adults, no one is really watching your every move and it is easy to let things slip or to tell little white lies (oh I didn’t get that email or yep that got done on time). If you decide to do everything with integrity, it does make everything easier (I really didn’t see that email or I saw it but it slipped my mind, SORRY). Saying your sorry for making a mistake is SO much easier than trying to justify your wrong actions. Always try to do your best and that is all anyone can ask of you (including yourself)!

Stay Organized

This is one I struggle with! I have tons of worksheets and charts to keep me in line. While I sometimes bristle with having these limitations, I try to look at them more as helpful boundaries that keep me on track. I also calendar my work life to the nth degree. Everything goes on there and I stick to it. Here is a great post about how to set goals and manage them effectively.

That having been said, I slip in this area as much as anyone else. I HATE when I see myself procrastinating about something and TRY to “just do it” to get it out of the way. The one way I have found works well is to organize your environment to make things easier. For instance, I HATE when I get a bunch of receipts in my purse and can’t find my money. One way to avoid this is to bring receipts up to my “receipt box” every time I come home from an event. Takes 3 seconds, I have to climb the stairs so I get a little exercise and it makes my days better (the fact that I have a “receipt box” is a post for another day!)

When you notice that you don’t want to do something, try and figure out if you can make a path of least resistance to getting there for yourself. Put your checkbook in the drawer right below your desk so that you can pay bills or deposit checks easily, set up a “one touch” system for emails, to dos or bills. Seriously, I am not the gal to tell you how to do this, if you have these issues, get an organizer in who works with people like you (I am SO visual) to help.

Have Grace

One of the main things I have as a lifelong, ongoing goal is to have grace (I even have a stamp that I use to remind myself). To me, having grace means respecting other people and their opinions. Listening and really paying attention instead of running people over. Doing what is required with a smile instead of crying about what I “have” to do.

Because I am clear on the front end what my goals are (to be a great marketing company owner, speaker and coach), I have something I can hold each of my icky things up to an say, “do I need to do this to further my business” or “can someone else do this better than I can”. There are many things that only I can do which I would not do given the choice BUT because I want specific things, those numbers are limited and manageable!

So I hope you can get a little bit out of this, I basically wrote it to remind me that I am a work in progress BUT that I am trying and succeeding in many different areas! If you do decide to set some of these up for yourself, BURN THE BOATS! Start today and don’t look back worrying about what WAS, go forward and change what IS!

Mindset – The Company You Keep

When Should You Send Email Newsletters, Blog Posts and Postcards

Tara Jacobsen — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 03:11:47 +0000

When should you send email newsletters, blog posts or postcards? There are going to be some common sense tips here but my biggest tip is “when you can!”

I have been in marketing A LONG TIME and conventional wisdom gives us times that are set in stone for sending things out but I want to bust some myths and bring some sanity to the process!

When To Send Direct Mail Pieces or Postcards

I always heard that the best time to send direct mail pieces like postcards or hard copy newsletters was Thursday. The thinking was that if you went to the post office with first class mail, it would take a couple of days to get there so the person would receive it Saturday. So let’s bust this one wide open:

They are talking about slowing down the mail service and so that could no longer be true
Now-a-days we have mailing lists that don’t just include local peeps, we have connections with people all over the planet and they could get it Saturday, Tuesday or even the following Friday depending on where they live
Are you sending direct with a stamp or is it going out bulk? Makes a difference you know in how long it will take to get there

So here is my take on this, send them out when you get done without worrying what day it is. If you are having an event, make sure they are in the mail at least a couple of months before for a “save the date” kind of thing with a follow up reminder no sooner than 3 weeks before the event. People are super busy and stressed and are not planning things months in advance anymore so you need to give them notice but remind them when the event is drawing near.

When To Post Blog Posts

Okay, here is a secret. I am writing this post because I have a hard and fast goal to post 3 times per week. In a perfect world, I would post on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday early in the morning to give me the best shot at getting sharing and readers. That having been said, stuff happened and this is not going to post until well after dinner time. SOOO, had I decided that posting on the “right” day was more important than getting something out there, I would have waited to send this until next Tuesday (5 days away).

In the real world, many of you will find this post on the internet by doing a search. You will not know that it posted on the right day, but the wrong time. So, my advice is (again) post em while you have them and have a plan to post on the right days for you (check your google analytics) but DO NOT wait for the perfect time if won’t work for you today!

When To Send Email Newsletters

You should send email newsletters Tuesdays for sure! The people are over the weekend and ready to read. Or Saturday, definitely! Then they are at home and have more free time. Oh, oh, oh in the morning, but not too early or they will be in shower, not too middly or they will be on the Facebook. Rats, are they B2B customers or B2C customers? Stay at home moms or small business owners?

Get my point? You should have a plan of when to send your newsletters (weekly, monthly) and a general idea when your open rates are best from your email provider BUT DO NOT NOT send them because you missed an arbitrary deadline you set for yourself. You are not behind, sending it today instead of yesterday puts you ahead of your competitors who who are waiting for the perfect time to send theirs (ps – there is never a perfect time!)

When Should You Post On Social Media?

I saw a study that said the perfect time to post on Facebook is 11am. Okay, 11am my time (Mountain) or 11am Eastern (even though lots of my peeps are out here). So I figure out the 11am thing (going with Eastern because 47 percent of the US population lives there while only 5.4 percent live in my timezone) but darn, I am going to be teaching a class then so, guess I will forget it for today and plan on doing it tomorrow when I can hit the “right” time.

Thinking that there is a hard and fast rule is a sure way to let procrastination and sloth into your life. Much like getting pregnant never comes at a good time, it is never the right time to post on social media every day. What I do is schedule it for first thing in the morning, check my Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube, then go on with the rest of my day. I schedule about 20 minutes tops. If I have time later in the day I will pop back in, but better to have some solid time early before the day gets away from me.

So why this rant so late in the day? Last week I had another marketing person approach me and say that we HAD to get a press release out by Monday. Okay, but Monday was a national holiday so many people would not be at work. Sooo what about Tuesday? Well Tuesday was the day back and people would be inundated with left over messages and mail so we looked at Wednesday.

What became clear to me was that no thought what-so-ever had gone into this scheduling at all and that common sense was lost. I want common sense back! A blog post like this one will not die on the vine just because it is going out late, it is well SEO’d, pretty long and full of information. I am proud of the fact that I am accomplishing my 3X per week blogging goal and did not give myself permission to fail.

So, if you get anything out of this post at all I would hope you take heart that I teeter on the edge of failure like everyone, but fight on to the end. I keep integrity by doing what I say will. AND I would rather send out 20 okay blog posts, emails or postcards than never send one because the time is wrong, or there are misspellings or I am working on getting it “just right”. Instead of just right, just do it!

Being Authentic Is The New Black – Small Business Branding

Tara Jacobsen — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 14:52:17 +0000

Small business branding is just like corporate branding, just cooler! As a small business owner, you have the chance to project your personality and focus into every aspect of your business, starting with being authentic!

Recent Corporate Branding News That Is Bad

So we were sitting around with the family yesterday and the topic of the new Cooper Mini came up (two mid 40′s, two mid 60′s and a mid 70′s aged people). That got us talking about the new Fiat 500, which lead to the fact that Fiat faked Jenny From The Block. For those of you who don’t know it, Jennifer Lopez has built part of her brand on the fact that she is just a girl from the Bronx and Fiat tried to make it look like she was tooling around in NYC but she was actually in Los Angeles during the filming. Here are some of the articles about the debacle:

Car Trouble? Jennifer Lopez Fakes Fiat Commercial With Help From Bronx Body Double – “Here, this is my world,” she says in voiceover as she’s shown behind the steering wheel, dreamily gazing out at the stereotypical Bronx scenes passing by. “This place inspires me to be tougher, to stay sharper, to think faster. They may be just streets to you, but to me, they’re a playground.”
JENNIFER LOPEZ‘S CAR COMMERCIAL BEING CALLED A ’SHAM’
Bronx Cheer For J. Lo’s Phony Fiat Commercial

So why was this so egregious to my family who has no stake in Fiat or Jennifer Lopez? Because it felt like we were lied to…period. If you are going to show her driving in the Bronx, which is her home town and part of her brand, would it really have been so hard to do it there? Was she too important to go back or was Fiat too lazy get the girl to the city? Either way, it did not feel authentic!

Small Business Branding and Authenticity

So what does this mean to you and your brand? My brand it being “TARAdactyl”, a marketing obsessed, time managing, blogger, speaker and coach that gets things done. (Who knew in the early 2000′s that having a Google name like that would follow you around forever?!?!)

When I speak, I am brutally honest. When I talk on my blog, honest, in person, online, in print, everywhere, same schtick. The nice thing about this is that I don’t have to try and remember what I told to whom. I can speak my mind and not feel like I am being untrue to myself.

Now, could a lawyer or doctor do that? SURE! Dr. Oz is one scary dude, but he is honest about all kinds of things that most people won’t talk about on TV.

But being authentic to your brand does not all have to do with honesty, it also has to do with staying true to who you are and what your company sells. If you are selling cars or houses or bathtubs and you are proud of your product and how you represent it, that will show through.

(if you are not all in on your product, that is a post for another day, but seriously, quit selling that right now and get going doing something you LOVE doing!)

Watch This! Gary Vaynerchuk talking about being authentic from 2008 – this shit never goes out of style!

If you would like to find out how to get YOUR small business branding on track, click the link to find out more about our marketing consulting sessions!

Branding Yourself – Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Tara Jacobsen — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:31:27 +0000

Branding yourself can be a scary proposition, what if everyone hates you and throws tomatoes? BUT, to make an impact in today’s world, you have to have a unique selling proposition!

So lately I have been setting up a small business marketing coaching program and so I have been thinking about MY branding, not how I present Marketing Artfully, but ME and what I bring to the the table.

Now, you need to know from the outset that I HATE the term Unique Selling Proposition or USP because it is trite, overused and intimidating. That having been said, it is the correct term so we will use it here.

So How Do You Start?

First off, who are you. What do your friends think of you? I have a piece of paper on the wall that I got years ago with a list of traits that people who knew me said I was like. This keeps me going when I am blue, but was a good start for my USP! The words are; honest, a wealth of knowledge, focused, independent, always willing to help, clever and funny (my favorite) and passionate about what she does.

So, TODAY, email your friends, favorite clients and loved ones and ask them to pick three words to describe you. If you are brave, do this on the Facebook. See how other perceive you and pick the ones that match YOUR insides. I picked, clever and funny, focused and passionate about what she does.

Chew on those for a week or so and see how you can fit them into how you position your services or your business focus.

Figure Out Who Is Going To Buy From You

Next I tried to figure out my target audience. While I like all small business owners, I LOVE people who are as crazy and goal driven as I am. SOOOOO, I am going to write a sales page that talks about all the nutso parts of me that people like that will appreciate. Things like my HOLY COW, Coaching Program which is a balls to the wall, 4 week death march to get things done. Is this one for everyone, SO NO, but it will mean that I am going to be working people who are focused and goal driven which is congruent with me and my business.

OKAY, I can hear you now, if you are targeting those types of people, what about everyone else on the planet. aren’t you going to miss out on sales? YEP! I am and YAY!!!

Why would I be happy to miss out on sales? Because I have worked with detail oriented, check off every box, have to know the why of it all people before and we are not a good fit. They get frustrated that I don’t tell them every little tiny step or go in a line from Point A to Point B and I get frustrated that they take a week to do something that I could have done in an hour. Does that make them bad people, ABSOLUTELY NOT, it makes them GREAT people who are not going to be a good fit for working with me!

Final Thoughts About Your USP

Okay, hopefully knowing the back story of my Unique Selling Proposition helps you a little bit. Here are the steps to take in order with details (for all you detail peeps!)

Find out from your friends who you are to them
Write those down and pick three that feel good to you
Pick a target market of people you would like to work with>/li>
Write your copy and offers in words and feelings that will attract those types of people

I know it SOUNDS easy, but doing anything with YOU is always funny because we tend to not like looking at ourselves so closely. The glory of this is though, once you have this handled, you can move on, living a life of prosperity and honor (okay that is a little much, but you can know that your message is the same as your being and do good with it!)

Small Business Marketing – How To Finish The Year Strong!

Tara Jacobsen — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:11:09 +0000

Small business marketing is not sexy (there I said it!) It is ALL about the grind and getting things done. Today we are going to talk about the grind and how the next two months can be the most productive ones that your business has seen!

What Small Business Marketing Is

People are always amazed when I talk to them about small business marketing! They think we are going to be talking about Twitter and Facebook (the current darlings of the marketing scene) or about what their logo should look like. Well, for me it is all about:

What products do you have for sale and how are you going to get the word out about them?
What services do you offer and it is CRYSTAL clear to the people who you are selling to
Is it easy to buy something from you or are you being “cute” or just not clear
What is your sales funnel and how are you going to get people in the top of it?
How are you going to followup with those people once they have raised their hand (hardly anyone buys right off the bat)
What is your sales message and are you selling YOU or what THEY want?

I have to stop now because I could go on and on with problems that I see in small business marketing today! OH, one last one… Are you focusing on important things or are you obsessed about something that matters to you but will not get you more sales? Sigh. I see this all the time! A client REALLY wants to have tiny logos under his email signature but doesn’t know how to write the code to make that happen but is still spending time worrying about it. I wanted to have a popup on one of my blogs and spent over 10 hours trying to get it to work (wish I could have that time back now!) Another client took over two months to figure out the name and right font for his logo (let’s not even talk about how many colors and styles he looked at).

Whatever you are obsessing about, finessing until it is perfect, worrying over, STOP IT!

How To Finish The Year Strong

I see too many business owners this time of the year “winding down”. They actually say, Halloween is coming like it is the start of the end. Don’t get me started about the whole, shut down from Thanksgiving to New Year’s model that many business owners have.

I have to tell you that I cannot afford that in my business and if you read my blog and like marketing, I have a feeling that you can’t afford to take off two or three months a year either. I say three months because if you start stopping in November, it will take you well into January to get things going again.

So what can you do? Let’s break it down!

1. You can be the one in your marketplace with a strong presence throughout the end of the year. If you blog, post more. If you network, network more. Phone calls, you get the picture! When everyone else goes away, this is your time to SHINE! Market share you take over now never goes away!

2. You can get all your “stuff” in order. My site went down yesterday and I had to do a quicky re-design and update BUT had that not happened, it would have been on the calendar to fix in November or December. I needed to get some SEO work done, but additionally, I needed to make sure that my products and services were easy to find and buy. On social media, you can get your lists in order, email you can start growing your list or segregating your list.

The best way to get on track with this is time block and set up systems for your marketing, lead generating and followup tasks so that they become second nature (writing blog posts has become like breathing to me, just happens).

3. Hire a coach. Seriously, I hired a coach for the last three months of the year and the insight and accountability that comes from having a third party look at your business and give you direction is invaluable. If you are thinking about hiring a coach, check out our small business marketing coaching options.

4. Develop new products or services. Don’t get me wrong, I KNOW that there will be a slowdown for most businesses during the Thanksgiving week, and the week between Christmas and New Years (for all my retail readers – I KNOW this isn’t your problem BUT use this info for your after the returns slowdown…:) During the time that you are slow, sit down and figure out what you can offer, write a sales letter for your current products that shows them in a new light, write those autoresponders you have been putting off. Using this time to create new products is SUPER VALUABLE and will serve you well in the new year!!

Want to finish the year strong?

I KNOW that having systems, written goals and action items are the only way you are going to succeed with your marketing efforts! If you are thinking about hiring a small business marketing coach to help, I work with a handful of business owners each month to get them on track and moving up to the next level. Check out our small business marketing coaching programs today!

Small Business Marketing – Telling The What But Selling The How

Tara Jacobsen — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 14:38:49 +0000

Small business marketing is all about SELLING a product or service that people have a need for, unfortunately most people on the internet are looking for free and easy. That is why we tell most of our clients to be free and loose with the WHAT and sell for access to the HOW.

Small Business Marketing – Telling The What

I was talking with a client the other day and he was worried that having a blog and talking about his business and the intellectual property was hurting the chances to SELL something.

The funny part of this is that we had just gotten done talking about how great the response was from some of the recent things we posted – TRUE business opportunities!

In this day and age of instant access to whatever your heart desires, it can feel like selling anything via the internet is a lost cause. “Buyers” are looking for money for nothing and the clicks for free. That having been said, I have found that there are 3 types of “buyers” on the internet:

People who want information for nothing – These types were never going to buy and if you help them great.
People who want information and want to do it themselves – These types are good for a membership site or to get signed up for a seminar or class.
People who want information to make an informed buying decision – BINGO! These people are checking out what and how you say things in anticipation of working with you or buying your product in the future and are the ones that we should focus on.

If you dumb your stuff down so far that you are not giving away anything, the chances of anyone noticing you is slim. It is much better to share too much and then have a rock-solid plan for monetizing that traffic or audience which brings me to…

Small Business Marketing – Selling The How

If you are a reader of this blog or have attended one of my live free events, you will hear me say often, “give your best stuff away”! For me that means telling people in the room the one neat thing that I found that works great or the couple of key things to do that will increase their business. This goes back to my three types of buyers above, the ones that were never going to buy still will not BUT the ones that are cruising for real help will definitely get their ears up if they think I know something REAL that can help their business.

Additionally, I will often tell you exactly what you should do, sometimes in EXCRUCIATING (to you) detail. I know as I am writing when I have crossed a line – when I tell you HOW to do it. That takes away from potential sales to my membership site or small business services company. For my client above, telling them what real estate markets to target is fine, telling them what types of investments are good is fine, posting how to buy them (or even find them) without him in the middle somewhere is less than fine!

So, long story short (too late I know)! For your small business marketing efforts, make sure they are in this order:

Sell something you like and are knowledgeable about
Get crystal clear about what product or service you are going to sell
Share your knowledge about your industry and make sure you have calls to action to purchase your product or service

To find out more, check out our Small Business Marketing Services or DIY Small Business Marketing Membership Site.

Small Business Marketing – The DISC and Your Sales Funnel

Tara Jacobsen — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 15:16:32 +0000

Small business marketing is full of fun things to trip you up! How your disc personality index and your sales funnel can keep you from making sales from all those leads.

Your sales funnel is the process by which you get people to buy from you. They move through the funnel from Sales Leads to Followup to Conversion to Sales. Very rarely will someone call you from a piece of your marketing and be ready to buy on the spot. This is where your DISC personality type can get you into trouble!

My DISC personality type is a D – driver. When I buy something I do not research 1,000 different options, ask for referrals or angst about the buying process. My sales process usually goes like this, I hear about something interesting, I buy it. This makes it VERY hard for me to sell to other people of different personality types. They generally do not make decisions that way and so I have to have systems in place that will allow them to learn more about my products or services (followup), give them buying options and a little time to decide (conversion) and then, bang they buy. This process can take MUCH longer than I think it should and requires that I have an active part in making the sale.

One of things that I do, knowing that I am that “D” type personality, is to slow down when I am talking to a prospect who is NOT like me. I talk lower and slower so that I do not scare them off. I answer ALL of their questions, even if I think that it is crazy to ask so many. I also have other people involved in the sales cycle who are better than I am at calling to followup and also to send information that is going to be vital to making the sale.

D types are good rainmakers and can help drive new leads into your sales funnel.

I Personality Type and Sales – “I” or intuitive type people are GREAT salesmen or women. They like the social interaction that comes from talking and getting to know new people. They truly care about the prospect and want to make sure they understand what they need. The one thing that can hurt an I is wanting to “make the sale”. A lot of times I’s will not want to lose the sale because the company is not able to perform a certain task. If you are an I, watch out for trying to make your prospect happy at the detriment of your business going forward!

Another thing that I’s have to look out for is the high-highs and the low-lows. Every lead feels like a win and they are ready to run with it, BUT every no feels like a loss or even a personal rejection. This can cause disappointment or frustration and if enough come at the same time, I’s can get thrown off of their games for weeks at a time. My suggestion to I’s if this happens is to call one of your favorite current or past clients to get a warm fuzzy about what you are good at and get right back on that horse again!

I types are good rainmakers and can also drive leads into your sales funnel.

C Personality Types and Sales – “C” Type people are analytical and facts driven. They want all the details of the process to be outlined and would like the sales funnel to be linear. I have a client who is a Denver Bookkeeper, TOTALLY a “C” type. To her the sales process should run like a well oiled machine. A sales lead comes in, a phone call is made, a meeting is set, facts are given and then the prospect buys. Easy-peasy! Well, we have been tracking how that is working in function and initially there was a gap in her followup. If the person did not buy on the first call, she wrote them off as not a “real” lead, not thinking that the sales cycle for most people is longer than one call. She has implemented a great followup call system using a true salesperson who stays in contact with her prospect, but still has a hard time closing the sale.

We talked yesterday and the gap is now at the prospect preparing their documents in order to be able to hire her. They want bookkeeping help, they need bookkeeping help, but they are not functionally doing the tasks required to make this possible like collecting bank statements, filling out spreadsheets or getting their receipts in order. This gap actually makes sense! If the person is not generally good at keeping these things together then they will be overwhelmed at the thought of having assemble them in order to hire a bookkeeper. My suggestion was to make part of her services a “hand holding” hour or two where she gets together with the prospect or client to get those items together. To her it feels silly, “why can’t they just get those things to me”, but to the people who need help, this could be a HUGE value add!

C type people are technically good at details and followup.

S Personality Types and Sales – If you are a D or an I type personality and need help with your sales, go TODAY and find a “S” to help you! S type people are stable, steady and caring. They will take all of the crazy ideas that you have and help you to implement them. They will followup on prospects and help them make good buying decisions that are win-win for you both.

I have a S! She is great for me as she doesn’t get distracted by my wild flights of fancy, she is dedicated to helping our company grow and she is the one all the customers say “I LOVE Michelle”. OF COURSE they love Michelle, by personality type she is set up to be caring and nurturing.

C type people make great customer service and inside sales people, getting prospects through the whole funnel to the sale.

I will bet you a dollar that your DISC personality type is effecting your sales process in some way, making your small business marketing efforts less effective. Take a look and really see what you might be doing to cause gaps in the process, find the holes and fix them! If you are looking for ways to improve the process, take a DISC personality yourself AND give one to any new people your are considering hiring – while it is fun to have someone who shares your DISC personality type, more often than not you need someone who is NOT like you to help grow your sales.

Crazy Goal Setting and Lead Generating Ideas

Tara Jacobsen — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 15:44:56 +0000

If you are a bit of a procrastinator, like me, fooling yourself with crazy goal setting and lead generating ideas can get you motivated and keep the drive to grow your business going!

Everyone thinks that I am a go-getter with unlimited enthusiasm for my work. They say things like “I see you all over the internet” and “I could never do as much as you do”. Well, I am here to tell you, NO ONE likes doing most of the things that I have to do to grow my business, INCLUDING ME! I read the best quote the other day, “It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required.” Sir Winston Churchill. Most of what you have to do to grow your business is NOT what you love, it is doing what is required to succeed.

I have friends who are great at lead generating and who spend two hours every morning, EVERY day, calling prospects. If they miss their time slot, they do their calling later in the day. I know people who attend 15-20 networking events A WEEK. However you decide to focus on lead generating, you must do it A LOT and with uncompromising focus!

Here are some crazy Goal Setting and Lead Generating Ideas to get you started

Make a grand pronouncement – This December I stated that I will write a blog post EVERY day for the entire month. This accomplishes two things, I will rank better for my target keywords which will bring me more blog traffic, BUT more importantly, it will set the habit of writing more frequently in stone. They say it takes 21 days to form a habit and I will definitely have gotten in the swing by the end of the year! Notice I did not say I will “try” to do 31 blog posts in a month. REALLY, there is NO reason that I have to try and do it, I am just GOING to do it. No excuses, just action. Like Yoda says, “Do or do not, there is no try”.
Make goals not wishes – I have already decreed that I will get 20 new clients in 90 days. That is an attainable goal with a set number of clients I have to add. Basically if I focus on my activities I will get more leads and if I follow up on leads religiously I will get more clients. Saying that I want more clients would be a cop out. Two more could be more clients. I tend to be on the side of setting attainable goals rather than huge ones I cannot achieve but some people like to have huge goals and are still happy if they miss them, your choice, just do SOMETHING.
Have a contest with your friends – When I was trying to grow my facebook fan page I got in a stupid contest with a friend. She got more fans and I cheated by buying Facebook ads to try and get more fans BUT the whole way through we had fun and picked at each other unmercifully. If you are competitive, this one works great!
Get an accountability partner – I do not need someone to hold me accountable every day, BUT you might! An accountability partner is someone you call every day at a set time and report that you have accomplished your tasks for the day. The best suggestion for this that I ever heard was to give your accountability partner a check made out to an enemy for $500. If you fail to do what you are supposed to or fail to call, the accountability partner sends your check to your enemy. Now that would motivate me!
Set up a mastermind – I am not talking about a sit around and chat mastermind. I am talking about a mastermind where you have goals, accountability and FEAR. Fear that if you do not do what you promised to do the other people in the group will lose respect for you. Once or twice a month is good for this kind of thing. ALSO, make sure you ask your mastermind group for suggestions about what they think you should do and take the ones that make you the most uncomfortable – suggestions you like will not move your business forward.
Enlist your friends – I set up a facebook group called 31 Days of Business because I was going to be working the entire month of December and wanted company. If you can sucker your friends into doing what you are doing, the momentum of the entire group can get you going, even when you are not excited about working.
Death March It – When I have something that I hate to do, I Death March it. I sit on a chair, curled into a little ball and do nothing but that until it is done. If it takes 16 hours, I sit for 16 hours (potty breaks and beverages are fine). No email, no chatting, no fun until it is done. This is ABSOLUTELY the best way to get something off your plate but it will make you grouchy and your family nuts so use it sparingly!

I KNOW, all of these lead generating ideas sound hard, well sorry to tell you, that is why they call it work BUT I am here to tell you that the results will be GREAT and you WILL get more business. If you are doing one or two of these things consistently, your business will increase!

Some things that motivate me:

Brian Tracy’s Blog
Gary Vaynerchuk’s Keynote Speeches

Are you excited about your business?

Tara Jacobsen — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:30:57 +0000

One question I always ask people is, are you excited about your business? Do you leap out of bed every morning just thrilled to get going on your day? If you are self employed and you are NOT this excited, then you are doing it wrong!

Small Business Entrepreneurs – A Get Rich Slow Kind Of Scheme

We work with many different types of entrepreneurs and small business owners who are working on a get-rich-quick kind of scheme. They jump from idea to idea, thinking the next one is going to be the BIG one that makes them heaps of money. I have never seen this work out, although I am sure you have gotten tons of emails telling you that it is possible for just $997.

One of my favorite bloggers, Remarkablogger, posted a challenge to other bloggers about revealing their secrets to breaking through to the other side of blogging success. I do not really talk about what makes my life easier or harder as an internet (and REAL) marketer, but in hopes it will help someone else, here are a few of my favorite things.

An Entrepreneurial Upbringing – A BIG ONE – One of the reasons I am successful at marketing and speaking to small business owners is that I grew up with that mindset. When I was young we had the “Whalers Walk” behind our house. This was a little gift store that was open whenever someone was home (as I was too young for a driver license, mostly that was me). I would follow shoppers up with my little cash box and sell to them. The next store my parents had was the DandyLion gift shop (my mom was WAY more creative with her naming conventions than I am!) As a child, I got an early exposure to the thrills of opening and running your own business.

Early Internet Interest – Around 1999 I got into a job where I did marketing for an internet company. When I started I had NO idea the difference between Linux and Windows servers, what programming languages where good for websites or even a lick of graphic design. Through trial and LOTS of error, I learned enough about that kind of thing to talk reasonably well with clients and overcame any fear that I had of technology. NOW, do not get me wrong, I am not a techy girl BUT I can talk the talk and not get snowed by fancy sounding techno-speak.

Failing A LOT – This one is HUGE – I mess up a lot. I have rolled out products that no one bought. I have spent good money on copywriting that would not make a starving man buy food. I have developed a “no lose” monthly product that I could not get more than 35 people at a time to sign up for. I have learned that you should not put years of time into something until you KNOW that it will make money. Do it good enough to get out there and then refine it AFTER you know it is something that the market wants.

Naming and pricing things – Oftentimes we know what products we have and what we like to do, duh. Most times we keep that a secret from potential clients by not formally naming it and putting a price on it. I used to do more piecemeal items, which I hate. Once I set up monthly marketing services, my business really took off. I LIKE working with committed people who are determined to make their businesses succeed, not just throw up a website or blog and think it will solve all of their problems.

Learning new things – Last but certainly not least is that I know everything is going to change and that I have to stay on the front lines to keep up. If you told me 5 years ago blogging and making blogs would be paying the bills I would have said you are nuts. Three years ago I did not know anything about social media and today I get paid to speak about it. It makes me sad when I see people stuck in what USED to be. They want everything to go back to how it was when they understood it. Well that is not going to happen. Progress moves forward and we have to keep up the pace. This little excerpt from Micheal’s post says it all!

If you look back to the 70s and early 80s, youâ€™ll find something both interesting and very revealing of human nature happened. The robots came. What I mean is, robotics in manufacturing happened. And everyone knew it was going to happen. People who worked in factories knew it was coming. Those workers had a choice: they could learn something/do something new to take advantage (or at least sidestep) the coming change (like go to to school forâ€¦ oh, I donâ€™t knowâ€¦ robotics), or they could doâ€¦ nothing.

You know what most people did, right? Weird, huh? Like lambs to the slaughter, etc. Those people were responsible for families, too, who were then harmed by this fatalistic refusal to deal with the changing times. Sad.

How To Find Your Small Business Passion

Tara Jacobsen — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:34:11 +0000

Finding your passion is all the rage today. You are supposed to get out there and start doing what you are put on this earth to do. Problem is, most people do not know what their small business passion is!

Yesterday I wrote about having a small business and entrepreneur marketing focus and man-o-man was I humbled by the response from my past clients and readers. Hearing that they are making thousands or tens of thousands of dollars more from the advice that I gave them was overwhelming.

So what is the magic that causes this to happen? Is it because I talked to them? Nope. Is it because they magically had the secret to making millions online. Nope. It is because they had a passion for what they wanted to do with their business and then worked really hard to make it happen.

About ten years ago I dubbed myself “Queen of Marketing”. No one bestowed that on me and I have no fancy schmancy college degree in Communication or Marketing. What I do have is a passion for marketing that is all out proportion with how interesting it is to normal human beings. I read about it, watch webinars, teach classes and consult with clients, basically it consumes about 75% of my waking hours. Can you say that about your business?

How To Find Your Small Business Passion Overview

I have read Gary Vanerchuk’s book Crush It and know that you have to have a passion. I have read about half of Joel Comm’s book KaChing and know that you have to have a passion. I have also talked with thousands of small business owners, entrepreneurs and realtors and know that most do not have a passion. They like their work well enough OR hate their work but like the income OR just are doing something for right now to get them through.

REALLY? You are spending 40 hours a week or more doing something that makes you go meh. Stop it now!

How to find your passion seems to be somewhat vague and most people have no idea how to go about it, and even less about how to fit it into their business model.

Where To Start

Start by figuring out what you like to do. I do not mean knitting, unless you are a rabid knitter and it consumes your every waking thought. Most people have hobbies and those should not be confused with their business life. Keep those fun and figure out what you like to do work wise. Here are some weird things that I know people like to do:

Accounting tasks – now I am an accounting dud. I hate balancing my books BUT there are people out there who get a thrill from making all those numbers add up. One is my client Joy (of Lakewood Bookkeeping and Accounting fame) who likes to work with small business owners. She enjoys helping them to regularly manage their accounts and grow their business. Another client likes to get in there and find out all of the problems in small and medium sized businesses, straighten them out and get them on an automated track. Same job, two different versions.
Real estate – My pal Cyndee, Clearwater Realtor extraordinaire, is hyper focused on providing great service and information to high end buyers in the Tampa Bay area. She has spent the last two years targeting that group and referring out anything that does not match her high-end criteria. NOW, you may think who does not want to target high end buyers, well many realtors actually would rather work with first time homebuyers OR sellers in distress OR people looking just for waterfront properties. Each person needs to target exactly what their passion is and go after that with gusto.
MLM Business – Two of my friends and clients are in multi-level marketing (or direct sales). They sell such diverse things as passion products and green cleaning supplies. While they LIKE their products they LOVE sales and business building respectively. It would not really matter WHAT they were selling, they are focused on the aspects of their businesses that they have a passion for.

So what is your passion?

If you do not know what your passion is, frustration can overwhelm you. Stupid passion talk.

Stop beating yourself up and start noticing when you are having fun. If you are making phone calls, getting leads and making things happen, maybe doing phone support is your passion (and one that can be VERY lucrative). If you ADORE researching new products online and figuring out what is going to be hot next season, maybe that is your passion.

Yesterday I spoke at a networking group and asked an insurance guy if he had THE MOST INTERESTING insurance information. He said no. Why would I want to read, listen or buy from a guy who did not have the passion for his business to make sure that my home and family are secure.

Here is how you do it…close your eyes (oops that doesn’t work for this venue), well keep your eyes open and think about what one thing you would do business-wise if that is all you could do for the rest of your life. Don’t worry about your industry, concentrate on what tasks you like to do within your business life.

There. You are done! That is your passion and now you can go out and make yourself work that matches that passion. It will probably not start or be lucrative today. You may have to keep your J-O-B for now or keep selling to people who do not thrill you today. BUT if you know what you want to do and take one or two steps towards that everyday, you WILL get there.

Fast Track To Passion Success

Most people should stop at the end of the last paragraph. They will find something they like to do, do a bit each day to move towards that and in a couple of years be comfortable financially or personally, whichever is important to them.

If you do not have a burning desire to build something, grow your influence or make a change in the world, that is fine! Finish here and prosper.

Warning Hard Work Ahead!

Okay, now that we have the “nice” people out of the way, here is the hard core, make it happen soon, get me to the finish line version.

If you want to Crush It with your passion, you are going to have to work hard with a single-minded focus for a while. You need to live, breathe and work your business for a while before she is going kick ass and take down names.

Whenever I hear tremendously successful people say that they would have done it differently if they had the chance today, it makes me NUTS. If they had worked less, spent more time smelling the roses and enjoying life, they would not be where they are today.

Great success takes hard work. If you can not work on your passion at your current work, you are going to have to do it some other time. Do it early in the morning, knock out some at lunch, stay up late, work on the weekends. If you have the luxury of working at your passion now, can you honestly say you are giving it your all every day?

The only way to succeed at this is to find someone who will kick your butt. I am NOT talking about a warm and fuzzy accountability partner who will pat you on the head if you make your calls today. I am talking about someone who will help you to set steep but realistic goals for the next week or two and who you would be HUMILIATED to tell you failed. I have been up at 11 o’clock at night (REALLY late for me) finishing things that I said I would get done so that I would not have to tell my person I just did not do it.

These should be YOUR goals and the the things that will make the most impact on your business in the next week or two. Do those things and then set new goals. Do them when you do not feel like it, do them when your car breaks down or your cat tears up your curtains. Do them when you would rather be fishing or getting your nails done. Life will always try and distract you BUT if you really want to succeed you will soldier on through and “just do it”.

Start today.