Being successful with your small business is usually a game of love.

If you don’t feel in love with your business at least some of the time then it’s going to get stale and you’ll lose motivation.

Some people are really motivated by money and don’t care much about which route they take to make it.  It’s more the thrill of the game that excites them.

You’ve probably read stories of ‘serial-entrepreneurs’ who love start ups but then get bored and move on.  And that’s fine too.

But that’s not usually the crowd I attract.  

You’re more likely to be a small business entrepreneur, coach or other service provider who really cares about how you make your money.

It can feel like you ARE your business because you do the marketing, make the sales and deliver your service.

And from my own experience I can tell you that when the love is gone it’s hard to keep the money flowing in because we need to feel aligned with our offers to attract the clients.

It’s not the same as working for someone else where you do your hours and then clock off and start thinking about the weekend …

And running your own coaching or consulting business can be especially tough on the nerves if you’re a sensitive entrepreneurial soul.

In fact, it’s tempting to throw in the towel when it feels like it’s getting too difficult.

And sometimes it will feel difficult because you’re just human and have your ups and downs.

The expectations you have of yourself may be your biggest enemy.  

Lots of coaches and business mentors talk such a big game that it can look like everyone else lands hot shot clients and makes a ton of cash with hardly any effort.

But you probably don’t see behind the scenes of what you really need to be consistently successful with attracting high end clients.

There are business systems that you must have in place which is why I teach building the foundation in my freedom coaching programmes.

It might not be as sexy as the next shiny new social media platform but without it there’s only flirting and no true love!

You mind can play tricks on you (yes, seriously) and before you know it you’re chasing all of these new exciting ideas instead of building out your foundation.

I’ve noticed that when I chase lots of new ideas I can get scattered and pretty unproductive and I see it with my clients too.

It’s a form of procrastination and what it comes down to is you’re looking to reignite the love for your business.

Just as in relationships it’s easy to get bored - so goes it in business.

And for that reason it’s critical to get really clear on why you’re running this business and what you love about it.

For this week’s challenge take a few moments to reconnect with what you loved about your business or service when you first created it.

WHY are you really in this business?

- List at least 10 reasons to start getting to the juicy truth of what turns you on about your business.

Is it a good fit for the future?

Or do you need to realign your offers with a new brand?

And if this has freaked you out a bit because I’ve called you out on some of your stuff, no worries.

I bring good news.

You can always reinvent your message and realign your offers with your heart so you can fall in love with your business once more!

As Jim Rohn used to say, ‘if you don’t like how things are, change them! You’re not a tree.’

If you like this and want to help others fall back in love with their business, please share the love through your favourite social media.

 

Podcast Video

There’s a lot of conflicting advice out there that can lead you into a very dark rabbit hole if you let it.

You can find experts and coaches everywhere, saying you ‘should do this’ or ‘should do that.’

The problem I see with this is that everyone’s situation is different and even though there are step by step plans that tend to help a lot, the only plan that works well for an individual is an individual plan.

It makes sense when you think about it and this is why it’s so powerful to work with a business coach in real time.

Much of the advice you may be bumping up against is in the area of business planning. Now I have a more relaxed view of planning that may differ radically to what you’re used to hearing in the business coaching space.

People get so hung up on planning and knowing exactly what’s going to happen at each step of the journey.  They have their planners out and get very uptight when things don’t go to plan. 

The irony is that things rarely go exactly to your business plan because no matter how much we want to be in control of every last detail, the truth is we’re not!  There are external forces at play that you have no control over, no matter how positive your thinking.  

The real beauty of it is as Supercoach, Michael Neill, says, ‘there’s an intelligence behind the system.’  And it may have a very different plan for you, but if you’re so rigid on how things are supposed to be, you risk missing out on the grandest plan yet.

‘If you fail to plan you are planning to fail,’ is a famous quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin, often used in self help and business literature.

And whilst this is a smart saying, it can’t be ignored that we are in a much faster paced world today.

You can make a plan this morning only to discover 10 minutes later, you were missing a vital piece of information when you formulated your iron clad plan.  Back in Ben Franklin’s day, information was a lot slower moving and I’m guessing you had to do the best you could with little access to real time information.

Think of it like going on a transatlantic voyage rather than hopping on a 10 hour flight. I often wonder what it must have been like in Jane Austin’s amusing world of letters delivered by hand from the other side of the country.  

So I can see in that world how it would be really sensible to lay out a long term plan based on what you know at that time because it’s unlikely to change much until the next letter arrives with life changing news.

But when you take a step back you can probably see that not only do you not have the full picture to create your plan at any given time, but you may also not be quite sure (yet) what you want to create.

So how can you operate effectively in a world that changes so fast and a plan that looked good yesterday looks silly by bed time?

Well, part of your planning is hopefully related to practical considerations such as what your clients need and want.  But in my experience, no matter how solid your plan looks when you make it, things are going to happen that are beyond your control.

I know this will freak you out if you’re a control freak!

The truth is that your clients live in their own reality and no matter how good your plan for them, they are busy every minute of the day creating their own.

So it’s vital in my opinion to have a fluid way of planning and working so that your plan doesn’t become so much about you that it doesn’t give your clients the freedom to use their own wisdom as they navigate your step by step.

I hope you’ve found this helpful and it’s given you a fresh and fun way of looking at your plans because plans are only useful until they’re not!

Please share with friends who might benefit from this and let me know what you think on Facebook or Twitter below.

Podcast Video

Brand envy is something I’ve noticed happening a lot in the online world recently.

Personal branding has become a bit like who’s the coolest kid at school with all of the latest fashion accessories.

People, especially women it seems, feel drawn to naturally compare themselves and their business with others but in the pre-internet days it wasn’t quite so easy to see what everyone else is doing.

And now it’s like you can go 24/7 window shopping all over the world without leaving your computer or device of choice!  And who doesn’t love a bit of window shopping?  In the old days this would be similar to twitching the net curtain to see what our neighbours our up to.  

They can’t see you but you can see them.  There’s a certain thrill to it. Maybe I’ve been watching too many spy movies lately but it can’t be denied that we love to see what’s going on behind the scenes. This is all the more evident in the reality T.V phenomenon.

And social media allows us to peek behind the curtain at what others are up to and it can be addictive.  What starts out as a little online ‘research,’ for our business, can end up with you feeling despondent if you’re not careful.

Whilst doing research and knowing what’s working in your market can be a good thing, it can also be very misleading.

Think about it … when you click on over to one of your competitor’s websites and feel a rush of ‘oh why didn’t I think of that?’ or ‘brand envy’ as I’ve coined it, because their latest marketing message really hits the spot for you, you most likely don’t have any real data on how well they’re actually doing.

Just because they have fab graphics doesn’t mean they’re doing great on the sales front.

And even if they have a ton of ‘likes,’ the same holds true.  Some people have a great fan base but it doesn’t mean they have the business you want behind the scenes.

And even if they have fab graphics, tons of likes and amazing sales, that doesn’t take anything away from you, does it?

Something I learned a long time ago in my prosperity studies is that there is enough to go around for everyone when you operate from a place of abundance.

But unfortunately we can allow ourselves to get swept up in what others are doing, to the point where we’re not doing … well … much of anything.

If you’re experiencing ‘brand envy,’ and it’s making you feel like what you’re doing isn’t hitting the mark, it’s probably time to step back, reconnect and review your own niche and marketing message.

Your business is your business.  Your message is unique to you and if it’s not juicy enough to get the attention of your perfect clients then you have my blessing to change it. :)

No one said you need to stay stuck where you are BUT please don’t take yourself out of the game because you’re not a replica of someone else.

The whole beauty of building your personal brand is that it’s just that — personal.

Don’t spend your precious time trying to be someone else when being you is all you’ll ever need.

I hope this has resonated with you today, wherever you’re at in the personal brand building and business game.

If it has please hit the buttons and share with a friend as the odds are someone needs to hear this today.

Podcast Video

I've come up with a new term recently called ‘over-marketing.’

But isn’t it a great thing to be doing lots of marketing, Rachel, I hear you cry?

Everything you’ve ever been told about online marketing probably runs contrary to what I’m about to share with you today!

And this is that there CAN be too much online marketing where high end clients are concerned.

Now take this advice with a pinch of pepper if you’re selling inexpensive items such as books or courses and your no.1 goal is to get large numbers in the door.

If however your goal is to attract more high end or premium clients then pay attention …

Ask yourself what your perfect, high end clients really want.

Do they want a ton of stuff to read, watch, listen to and do?

Probably not.  This is where most online marketers get it completely wrong.

They take their ‘market until you’re blue in the face’ mantra and apply it to the high end client space thinking it works just the same.

It doesn’t. Simply hiking your prices up does not a high end client model make.

And after immersing myself for several years in this high end client space I see clearly why so many experts and coaches fail to attract the type of clients they say they want.

Your perfect, high end clients probably don’t want this endless supply of free stuff.

Just as when they enrol into your programme or hire you they want your best, quickest, step by step and time saving expert solutions, the same applies before they ever reach out to you.

So if you’re listening to the top marketers and coaches bang on and on about how much marketing you should be doing, perhaps this will come as a relief for you today.

Too much marketing or ‘over-marketing’ as I’ve coined it, could actually be repelling your high end clients rather than attracting them!

This is the problem with blindly following 7 figure gurus who are at a completely different place to you in their business.

What To Do Instead?

Well, it’s not my style to leave you hanging so here’s the plan.

If you’re in manic over-marketing mode it’s time to take a step back and review what marketing activity you’re doing that IS working.

And whilst you’re there, review what isn’t working.

If you’re bombarding your people (social media and email lists) with a strategy a minute, it makes sense, when you think about it in this new light, that your marketing might be getting in the way.

Take a deep breath.

Feel more clarity?

If you apply what I’ve shared with you today you can dramatically reduce your endless marketing to-do list and be able to instead attract more of your high end clients with a lot less work.

It’s nothing short of life-changing but it’s a huge paradigm shift if you’re a prisoner of a vicious schedule where you do a lot of marketing because ‘that’s what they said you should do.’

If you want more clarity on this check out my 3 steps to freedom so you too can escape the online overwhelm of over-delivering, over-marketing and under-earning.

In part 1 of this series we talked about whether you’re ready to add a high end service to your business offerings. (You can read it now by clicking on the link if you missed it)

Today as promised we’ll look at what that might look like and what type of high end services are in demand in today’s busy online marketplace.

There are 3 main categories I’ve identified where adding on a high end service to your current business could be lucrative for you as follows:

Category 1 - Coaching

If you’re a coach whether certified from the get go or you’ve come to this wonderful helping profession through experience, offering a high end service is what will enable you to offer your highest value transformation to your perfect clients.

By offering a high end or premium service you can do your best work without burning out and spending your life chasing clients for hourly or monthly sessions.

What I’ve seen and experienced when working with that most unsatisfying model is that you spend most of your time chasing prospects and worrying about your next sale, instead of doing the work you love. (Helping people create transformation)

Coaching is a fascinating industry to be in these days and things they are a changin …

Coaches now have a unique opportunity to create their own hybrid business model to suit their expertise, experience and perfect clients’ needs.

This could look like a blend of coaching, consulting, training and mentoring which is along the lines of what I offer and teach my clients to create in what we call their Freedom Business.

By adding in what’s known as ‘content’ to your coaching packages you not only help your clients get better, faster results but can also go ‘high end’ because busy, successful people want this type of ‘done for you’ solution.

I call this your Expert Solution System and I help my clients create theirs for their own authentic brand and packages.

Category 2 - Consulting

As with coaching you can add in consulting, training or mentoring — so with consulting you could add in coaching or a mix of other approaches.

Most consultants do some type of coaching anyhow because it comes naturally to many of us in the helping professions.  By consciously adding in a coaching element to your packages you can help your clients experience exciting breakthroughs that fully align with their values and identity, rather than just advising them what to do with a cookie cutter type formula.

One of things I enjoy most about working with my clients is the element of helping them step fully into claiming their authentic brand and this would be harder to achieve with consulting alone.

Category 3 - Other Expert Services 

Perhaps you’re a trainer, web designer, photographer or ghostwriter like one of my talented clients, Ginny, The Author Maker. Offering a high end or VIP programme isn’t just for coaches and consultants although it’s easy to make the mistake of thinking so. You can however also offer a combination of services alongside your main service such as coaching or consulting to help people with the implementation piece.

The truth is that most industries have a gap at the top that caters to the VIPs or people who want the best you have to offer.  This is most often seen in the airline industry where you have the various options of business and first class.

20% of your potential clients want VIP treatment and won’t consider working with you if you don’t offer a comprehensive solution that helps them get faster results with less stress.

Which brings me back to why I love this business model so much.

*You’re not looking for hundreds or thousands of people. You can make 6 figures with a handful of clients, dependent on your specific offering and it’s not hard to do once you have the foundation in place.  

And even if you’re just starting out, by having this awareness, you can now shave years off your journey of barely making ends meet when going the traditional route of selling your hours to everyone and...

In the new digital economy of hybrid business models there are so many options for monetising your expertise.

The problem with most of them, although often thrilling to read about, is that they take an awfully long time to put into place and turn into profits.

And unless you’re a very fast implementer and create whatever it is on the fly - you still won’t know whether it converts until you’ve got your marketing campaign working.

Hmmm - sounds kind of long winded doesn’t it?

To complicate things further I’ve noticed that most creative entrepreneurs get taken off track in a heartbeat.

It doesn’t take much to have us excited about the next shiny new toy rather than completing the project we already committed to!

And of course there are all the psychological reasons why we do that but we won’t get into those right now.

Today’s challenge is for you to explore whether adding a high end service and a lucrative stream/s of income to your business might be the right next step for you.

You may not think of yourself as a consultant, coach or service provider type.

Perhaps you haven’t considered adding a high end service to your business because you just didn’t realise it was an option.

Or maybe you think offering a high end service would be just too time consuming.

And in fact the opposite is true when your high end offer is structured correctly for your people to get the results they desire.

You could really be missing out by not having the right information and training.

Is a High End Service Right For Your Business?

Ask yourself the following questions to help you to decide:

Do you have a real passion for helping people achieve results?

Do you feel that perhaps you’re giving away the farm with your lower end offers?

Do you already have or would you like to develop a signature system or solution for your expertise?

Are you tired of overwhelm, overwork and underearning?

When Might A High End Service NOT Be Right For Your Business?

If you’re not committed to delivering your very best to your premium clients. (Please note this doesn’t mean you have to be perfect)

If it sounds like great money but you’re not excited about attracting and working with high end clients.  (Passion is key with high end services)

You’re resistant to the idea of packaging up your expertise into a solution that you want to be known for. (There is some work to be done to pinpoint what I call your ‘Expert Solution System.’

I hope that’s brought you some clarity around whether to explore offering a high end service to add another stream or multiple streams of income to your business.

In the next challenge in this series we’ll talk about what that service might look like for you and what type of high end services are in demand today.

If this resonated with you and you’d like to chat with me about whether this high end offering might be a good fit for you, click HERE to get the details.

Please share on your favourite social media so that business owners who are overwhelmed, overworking and underearning can explore an alternative to give them more freedom in their life.

Podcast Video

What do I mean by that?

In a recent challenge we talked about self doubt taking you out when you’re playing big.

Today it occured to me to talk to you about when playing big may not serve you.

There’s also a place for playing small … now stay with me here.

I’m not suggesting that you say goodbye to your big dreams and settle for less than your best.

But there’s a time to play big and a time to play small.

In my Freedom business, playing small means getting very detail oriented and focused on the small things in your business.

So one example of this could be that before you ‘play big’ and decide to launch an online programme for hundreds of people, you instead launch an online programme for 5 or 10 premium clients.

And it doesn’t mean that you’re not super excited but what it usually means is that you can make serious money very quickly because you’re focused on one client at a time.

Too many coaches and experts are trying to copy big complex business models that have taken gurus YEARS of effort, sweat and tears to create.

And what you don’t see is all of the drama going on behind the scenes.

You don’t see the big team and support and complicated marketing funnels that these type of complex business models require.

In my coaching and mentoring clients around the world (from my home office in this little village) I’ve noticed that it’s sometimes easier for my clients to dream big than to step into really playing big.

It’s also often easier to dream big than to play small. 

Playing small in this case could be to get the detail down on paper of your next programme or profit project.

And so to help you with that in today’s challenge, first I want you to ask yourself where this might be showing up for you.

And then I want you to get laser focused on how instead of just dreaming big you can instead turn your dreams into real cash and premium clients TODAY, THIS WEEK AND THIS MONTH!

Dreaming big is required to build a highly profitable business - whether you’re dreaming of BIG clients, BIG profits or BIG visibility …

But you must create the foundation beneath those dreams to turn them into reality.

And the fastest way I know and have helped people do that is to dream big but play small.

Again what I mean by that is to get super focused on the details of your next offer or programme and get it out into the world as quickly as possible. (That’s the playing big bit)

After all, ask yourself, is it better to simply dream of 100 or a 1000 clients in an online programme but get tangled up in the complexity of what’s required OR to begin right now to enrol premium clients into your high profit, leveraged, Freedom business?

Claiming your freedom starts one client at a time with a leveraged business model.

If you’d like to know more about how I can help you to both play big and small apply here to get your FREEDOM plan

 

Podcast Video

Everywhere I click lately people seem to be promising to teach how to hit 6 figures in your business. You’ve probably noticed it yourself and had one of two reactions:

“Only 6 figures? I hit that years ago. What’s the big deal? I’m ready to hit 7” OR

“6 figures? Are you kidding me? If someone would just show me how to hit 6 figures I’d be over the moon and happy forever.”

Deciding to play a bigger game is both exhilarating and terrifying.

I see the highs and lows when coaching and consulting with my clients where as a savvy marketer you can do your best research by learning what your perfect clients really talk and worry about.

And I’d be lying if I didn’t say I experience the highs and lows myself.  Each time we go to a new level we face new challenges.  It can be tempting to think that the coaches and experts who are very visible have it all figured out.

But the truth is there is always more to learn both in business and in life which means that there is always a new test for you as long as you’re growing.  That’s why I recommend you be a coach or expert who has a coach and continuously invests in yourself.

It’s hard to play big alone no matter how much experience and expertise you have.

And if you’ve decided to play a bigger game this year which may mean you want to rebrand, get more visible, develop your own VIP coaching programme or whatever it is for you, you can be sure that you’ll be tested.

It’s easy to be excited when you’re connected to your vision and everything is new and fresh.  The tests come when it’s time to get out of your comfort zone and take the steps to follow through.

There have been many times when I’ve been tempted to shrink back into playing a smaller game and to be honest my idea of playing big may be very different to yours.

I’m reading Playing Big - Find Your Voice, Your Vision And Make Things Happen, by Tara Mohr, and I’m only a couple of chapters in but it’s certainly ringing my bell.

Women especially seem to let their inner critic take them out of the game before they’ve even started playing.

I coach both men and women so I try not to generalise as there are plenty of women coaches specialising in coaching women, but I’ve found it to be true that often we women tend to take business very personally.

It’s as if our whole self-worth and identity hinge on us being successful in our business, isn’t it?

I see it in my VIP coaching with high achieving women and I see it in mastermind groups with other very successful women.

Feminine intuition which can be a huge advantage in business can also ‘take us out’ when we let our sensitivity take over, whereas men seem to be less likely to feel so vulnerable when they’re more visible and ‘out there’.

There are all kinds of studies about this and in Playing Big, Tara Mohr shares how when she asks younger women to do an exercise about their inner critic the result tends to be very different from with older women. High achieving women from the older generation report hearing their mother’s voice as their inner critic whereas younger women were more likely to be hearing the voice of a boss or mentor.

When asked why they think it is the case, they shared that their mothers sheltered them in a way that young women no longer need in today’s world.  High achieving women from previous generations had to really break the tradition that being a home maker must be their only goal in life.

Although women have come a long way, we’re still a different breed to men and seem to carry a lot of emotional baggage with us passed down from years of being told to play it safe, play small and literally stay in the kitchen.

So it’s no wonder that playing big can be difficult for some of us.

Today’s challenge is to run through these questions and see where you may be letting self-doubt take you out.  

What if someone you care about judges you?

What if someone you want to work with finds you lacking?

What if you let self-doubt stop you from even trying to play big and roll out your new project?

What if you’re secretly afraid that your friends will think you’re turning into one of those ‘evil, rich people?’

What if you worry about charging premium prices because you may ...

This week’s challenge was inspired by a client question I received and I thought it would be helpful to share my thoughts as this is such a common fear in business.

There comes a point for most of us in a coaching, consulting or other ‘helping’ career when you come up against the dilemma of, ‘well I know I can help this person but by doing so will I not just be creating more competition for little ole me?’

And if you haven’t come up against it yet you probably will soon.

If your perfect clients are not on a similar journey to you and are in a totally different niche then you might not come up against this unless perhaps you give a talk or other content sharing your story and how you got to where you are today.

If there are people in your audience who aspire to get similar results or lifestyle as you then you will almost certainly attract them. As a long time student of prosperity I try to live in the paradigm of 'there is no competition - only creativity' and it works well for me. 

I very seldom worry about competition as I know that what I do can only be done in my way by me!  

That doesn’t mean I don’t fall prey to ‘brand envy’ now and then just like everyone else but I don’t tend to spend much time thinking about who’s ‘getting my clients’ because in a world where there’s no competition, only creativity, my perfect clients will be drawn to working with me and the call will be as clear to them as the nose on their face.

That's the authentic magnetic brand I help my clients create too. And you’ll find that the more you move into claiming and leading with your own expertise and experience, the less thoughts like this will trouble you.

The question comes from a place of scarcity and the deep fear that there’s not enough to go around.  And trust me I know how easy it is to fall into that place of lack, when you’re feeling a little vulnerable.

If this does come up for you, know that it’s quite normal. 

To go a bit deeper on this for you today I’d add that if you’ve created a winning method or system then seriously consider where you want to take it.  If you attract a stream of people who want to ‘do what you do,’ then it may well be an opportunity for you to offer certified coaching programmes.

Your clients will model what you do and if you’re in the same niche they may even plain copy your work and it may not even be intentional.

Offering certified programmes means that you move into the ‘train the trainer’ role and rather than teaching your clients to do what you do for a usual coaching or training fee, you instead train them to actually deliver your content in the way that you intend it to be delivered.  

I’m a certified coach in someone else’s material as I knew I wanted to offer money coaching to my clients so it was a good add on for me.  As I see it there are pros and cons from both sides. 

I haven’t yet created my own certified programme even though creating systems is one of my strengths and I have many that really help my clients to get great results.

To be honest I may never do so because it looks like a whole lot of complexity and I’m very much into a simple business model but that doesn’t mean it’s not right for your business.

But doesn’t this create more competitors Rachel?

Well yes and no.

As the creator of your system or method that other people duplicate you’ll establish yourself as the ultimate authority on that system.  And rather than simply sharing all of your good stuff for a one off investment or getting ripped off by copycats, your students will be certified coaches to deliver your material and usually would pay for that ongoing privilege.  The more coaches or trainers delivering your content the more well know you’re likely to become.  It’s a bit like having lots of tribute bands - there’s only one Abba!