Have you heard marketers say: The value of your business is in the size of your List –meaning your list of subscribers (prospects and clients)?

When people hear how I built a Six figure Income based on what is regarded as a TINY list in marketing circles, they are amazed, and quite frankly, sometimes so am I.
The way I see it, the value of your business is not in your list, it’s in the RELATIONSHIP with your subscribers (who are on your list). And I feel so closely connected to my wonderful responsive community (of which you are a part) which I think is part of what makes my business so successful.

But here comes the thing that had me a little blocked:

I know I need to grow my community by adding A LOT more subscribers to my list. So, how will I still have that close emotional bond with my lovely peeps that I enjoy now and that is so essential to my success even though there are A LOT more of them?

I realised that I got myself a nice mental block that needed to be taken care of quickly.

When I did, I realised that the secret to keeping the emotional bond going and quickly extending it to a bigger number of subscribers is very simple.
Let me share with you the secret and three practical ways you can implement it starting TODAY, so that you can a) create a community of people who love what you do, and b) grow it quickly while still building a very personal connection with them.

So here is the Secret: Provide what ever it is that your one special person – your ideal client – perceives as great value, and do that consistently.

Get to know the ONE person you are writing to.
Yes that’s right you are writing for ONE person only. Make sure that one person is your ideal client. Your goal is to communicate with thousands of ideal clients just like that one person, however to really focus on creating tremendous value, you write to that one person with the aim of absolutely delighting that person. The better you know that one person the better your overall results will be. Why? Because ideally everybody on your list is like that one person.
So make it your business to find out not only the person’s demographics but also how they think, what their desires and fears are and what motivates them. The more you do this the more attractive you will make yourself to your ideal client.

Let them get to know you.
Just like you would in face to face communication, tell that one person about you. Let your own personality shine through in your writing so they get a sense of who you are. Don’t be afraid to share your opinion and every now and then show them you are not perfect and share what you learned from your mistakes. People trust people who are like them, so show them how human you are. Obviously don’t go overboard, keep it relevant, engaging and entertaining and make it clear that you are at least several steps ahead of them in the journey they are about to take.

Give them what they want
People respond best to what they are having a deep desire to create or get, that’s just human nature and it’s really important to remind yourself of that when you market and communicate with your subscribers. The more you wrap your valuable message in the gift wrap of emotional triggers, the more response you will get from your subscribers. When designing headlines for your articles, ask yourself, what could be going on right now for my ideal client? What is on their mind and what emotions do they have going on and how does that relate to my services? Then package your solutions into bite sized chunks that are easily presentable, eg the 3 tips to …, how to do … in 3 easy steps….

If you want to learn what steps to take to design your whole business around these principles then join me on my upcoming free telesminar Success by Design: The Secret to designing a Coaching or Consulting business that has ideal clients call YOU

And of course leave me a note, I’d love to know what you think of these three tips.

How often do you hear “I’d love to work with you but I can’t afford it” from your clients? If you think it’s too often then chances are you are not marketing your services to the right people, those that can actually afford it and those that are affluent enough not to have to be out shopping for the lowest prices.
Marketing to affluent clients has many advantages: It’s easier to raise your fees, you don’t get bargain shoppers but people who value quality and people who will rave about your services to their (also affluent) friends. So how do you position yourself as attractive to this group?

1. Be clear about your ideal client

How clear are you about your ideal client profile? Is your marketing material designed to speak to those people who have the funds to pay your fees? What are their demographics? What affluent means is relative and it all depends on what kind of a fee you are planning it charge. But you want to make sure that your client is in life circumstances where they have enough disposable income to pay what you are asking. For example, a singe stay at home mum with two little kids with an income of $50,000 a year is not very likely to invest $20,000 in a premium image makeover session. While this is an obvious example, I suggest you look at your ideal client profile and just check that you are being realistic with your target audience.

2. Create a strong premium brand

A strong premium brand creates a sense of quality you can trust and it truly sets you apart in the market place. Affluent clients are more likely to buy from you if you have created a strong brand personality. A brand that stands for a clear message of premium, quality, innovative, glamorous or other attributes that are associated with being superior will be favoured by clients who have sufficient disposable income to spend. While budget conscious clients can’t afford to think this way, affluent people can and LIKE that they can ( I know that whenever there’s a premium option available, I’m likely to take it, because I can and I like the preferential treatment).

3. Don’t be a bargain

Affluent clients will not buy from you just because you are offering bargain prices. In fact, they may even be skeptical about the value of your service if you don’t charge enough. That’s right, you can lose sales if you undercharge. Affluent clients equate a premium price with premium service (you need to back it up and actually deliver of course). So if you are wanting to attract affluent clients, position yourself as a premium provider and have your fees be aligned with that.

I realise that doing this (especially the last one about raising your fees) takes some courage to do because whenever you select a specific group to target you are also deselecting another. It shows once again that you can’t be all things to all people. I do know though that if you consistently do the right thing with your marketing, attracting affluent clients to you is a much smarter strategy than being a bargain provider. And as for the middle ground, well, that’s a pretty wishy washy place to be. I suggest you make a decision and stand by it.

What are your thoughts? Would love your comments on this. Please leave me a note!

Clarity and Focus have been a big focus for my platinum group. They wanted to walk away having a clear plan that would add big dollars to their bottom line THIS YEAR, and they did (some of them have a plan for generating more than $100,000).
Listen to some of them here describing their breakthroughs.

June Kitto from www.careerfit.com.au on her breakthroughs on niche, standards and masterminding

Diane Gatto, Heart to Mind, finding the key to really have her business stake off…

Jenny Marshall from www.kidsweightmatters.com sharing numerous breakthroughs

Rosie Hirst www.alignedbusiness.com on her new business approach that will prevent burnout

Tisiola Lear, Coach, watch this space…

Learn how to dissolve the resistance and get yourself out of procrastination www.essentialnlptoolkit.com

still a few seats left! Book by the end of the week and still get the early bird price.

Would love your comments and questions. Please leave me a comment here!

Love and Prosperity

Yvonne

Hi there,

You’ve made it to this page because you and I have had a conversation about your business and about working together to grow it. So I thought this might be up your alley.
Have a look, you are getting this opportunity before everybody else does.

What it takes to build a business that attracts lots of ideal clients, watch the video for the answer:

To get onto the priority list, go to

http://www.clientprosperity.com/small-group-registration.html

and enter your name and email. You’ll be the one of the first ones to be notified once registrations are open.

Listen to this blog post here:

How you describe what you do can either be totally inspiring for your potential clients in which case they will WANT to work with you and often excitedly say “this is exactly what I need right now” or it can leave them confused and in a way ‘turned off’. Let me share with you my three step formula for inspiring your potential clients into working with you.

Here’s the secret: Give them back their hope that their desires can be fulfilled. Move their dreams within reach.

Clients become clients because they have a problem that you can solve. Your task is to convince them that you can help them. Most people take that to mean talk about your solution. And that’s a big mistake. People aren’t ready to hear it yet. Instead, take them on a journey with an inspiring story. And here is how it goes:

1. Let them know you truly understand their problem
This is the first and THE most important step. If you miss this the rest won’t work. Tell them how you either have been in the situation they are in now or how you have observed the problem many times in people around you and how it really bothered you.

2. Tell them that you solved the problem and how it is now
Tap into your potential clients’ dreams. Inspire them by sharing with them your new reality which is everything your potential clients want. Knowing that you have just that now is much more inspiring to them than your ‘how to’ description.

3. Mention that you have a simple step by step solution
Only now do you allude to the fact that from your experience you have designed a step by step system that reliably creates the results your clients want. You don’t even have to tell them what they step are, if they truly are your ideal client, they will be hanging on every word you are saying by now and will ask “How?”. Voila, someone is getting ready to engage your services.

Very elegant, don’t you think? Incidentally, I happen to have a step by step system to create this kind of message that makes it really easy to inspire your clients, no matter what your business. Because as you can imagine, how exactly you tell your story in these three stages makes a big difference to your results. The beauty of it is, that doing this also helps you to clarify in your own mind what it is you do. Which is very inspiring for YOU.

I just took all my platinum clients through it last weekend. Watch their excitement as they get it really clear in their mind what they do and how to communicate that to their clients.

June Kitto from www.careerfit.com.au on her breakthroughs on niche, standards and masterminding

To see more videos with breakthroughs my clients are sharing go to http://www.clientprosperity.com/blog/?p=427

There’s so much to do, build your list, write articles, get your website up, write invoices, make sales, create new content…you get my drift. How is one supposed to get it all done in those meager 24 hours in one day???
And then when you have generated a lot of activity you have created even more work for yourself in servicing your clients. Sure your business grows but what about having a life?? I know what it’s like to feel overwhelmed by all the things that need to get done. I have been at that place a few times. These days its good
How do successful six figure income solopreneurs do it? Are they superhuman?

The answer is no, they are not superhuman. But they have a smart system in place that helps them to get everything done that really needs to get done. Let me share with you how I juggle all my projects and still have a life (while you are reading this I am in a beautiful beachside holiday house at the South Coast).

Let me share with you four insights that have helped me to manage my business growth and still have a great life.

1. It’s all about your priorities
As an entrepreneur your To-Do list is never empty. There are always more things to do then there are hours in the day to do them. That’s just a fact and the sooner you get comfortable with that the better. The key is to prioritise the things that will make you money. That’s making sales, marketing every day, servicing your clients, creating new programs and content. Do these things first and everything else after these things are done. That will mean you will make the money you need to make to outsource the rest.

2. Outsource everything someone else can do
That’s the goal. And if you do what I suggest in point one you will quickly get to a point where this is easily possible. How do you know whether it’s time? If your days are filled with income producing activities and you are not getting the bookwork, admin etc. done or your burning the midnight oil doing it, it’s time to hire an assistant.
I suggest you start by outsourcing the lowest value activities first, I started with my book keeping and then I got a cleaner. If you want to justify the expense, invest the extra hours you free up into smart marketing, eg. ring some past clients, get a speaking gig, be active in social media etc.

3. Hire experts
When I talk about hiring assistants I am talking about people that are experts in their field (yes that includes the cleaner ). Hire people you don’t need to train and that are eager to serve you rather than being a drag on your time. And of course, you don’t need to employ them. I work with virtual assistants who are great at what they do and work from their own home or office. Set your standards high and watch your life getting easier as they take on more of your work.

4. Learn to let go
This is a big one for most entrepreneurs. If you seriously want to build a six figure income business, you need to let go of needing to do everything yourself and thinking nobody else can do it as well as you can. That’s not true for most things (except your unique brilliance). Letting go of wanting to control everything is essential for your success. You need to take a leadership role and start to delegate, delegate and delegate some more.

Put these four things into action and watch your results soar. Every time you let go of more, your income will go up! Would love your take on this. What’s your biggest challenge with getting it all done? Please leave me a note!

I had a number of phone calls and emails in the last two weeks from some of you, my valued subscribers. And I was delighted. We did some strategizing on the spot (your initiative always pays off). And here is what I noticed that compelled me to write this article:

What people have been saying is this: “Yvonne, I am so inspired by your weekly newsletters and I’d love to work with you in getting my business really going but… I don’t have the funds, I don’t know how what my niche is, I don’t know that I have what it takes.”

These are probably the three biggest obstacles people create for themselves when wanting but presumably not being able to grow their business. Citing these obstacles often spells the end of the entrepreneurial dream.
So I wanted to address them in this week’s article. The truth is, none of these should stop you, they are not truly an obstacle. Read the truth that dispells these three myths and what it really takes for you to get over them. What you read might surprise or even shock you, but I promise you it’s my truth, I live by it and it’s working.
Let me show you what I mean:

1. I don’t know how to position myself as unique. I don’t know what my niche is.
I hear this all the time. For some reason people often think that they have come up with a unique idea in order to build a successful business. The truth is you don’t. And what’s more, it’s incredibly risky to come up with a completely novel idea because you have no idea how the market, your ideal clients, will respond.
The super successful Entrepreneurs I know have done no such thing. Let me tell you what people such as Aussie Business Icon Dick Smith, and Marketing Legend Frank Kern (who made $8 million last year) are doing: They know what they’re passionate about, they copy what the best people in their industry are doing and they make it better. So there you have it. I believe this is the fastest way to success. Allow yourself to stand on the shoulders of Giants.. Give them credit for it, and take the credit for creating something better as a result of learning from them. That’s exactly the formula I follow and it’s working very well for me. And it can for you too, no matter what industry you are in.

2. I don’t know whether I’m ready for this
How ready do you have to be??? You know what you’re passionate about. You know more about it than others. You have some of the missing links that can solve your clients problems and you are passionate about building your own business. Good. You’re as ready as you’ll ever be. You don’t need to be the top expert who has worked in the field for 20 years before you do it. You will be the accomplished expert much sooner if you make the jump and just go for it. If you don’t do it now, chances are you will tell yourself that you’re ‘not ready’ for the rest of your life and never take action. That’s what most people do. Do you want to be ‘most people’?

3. I don’t have the funds to invest in my business.
I know we all love the shoestring budget thing. But listen, shoestring or not you still need a budget to grow a business. Especially if it’s your first business. Most importantly you need money to invest in your own education. If you don’t start there, then you will be wasting a lot of money spent on Marketing etc because more than likely you will invest in the wrong things. So yes, you might think I’m biased because I happen to be a mentor myself, and I I’ll say it anyway – get a mentor. It will get you to where you want to be faster, easier and with much less frustration. I’ve always had one while in business and I credit my success entirely to that fact.
Don’t have the money? It’s not that hard to raise say $10,000 starting capital if you really want to. Sell your car, take a part time job, find an extra client, raise your fees, do whatever it takes to make this happen. Where there’s a will there’s a way. I really believe that.

So, no excuses now. Simply ask yourself, how much do you really want to run your own Six Figure Income business? If you really want it bad, take action NOW.