Make your business a well maintained investment

It’s often said that “it takes money to make money”. In running a business, this is almost always true. Starting and running a business requires capital. There are fees that to file paperwork for a business license,  office space and equipment to set up, and business cards to buy at the very least.  But once the start up costs are covered, it’s important to keep making investments in order to grow.

Risks can be Scary

Entrepreneurs are known as being risk takers, it is most definitely a leap of faith that business owners take when they commit to creating a business. Most businesses fail within five years of starting up, so it’s a gamble entrepreneurs make when starting a business, and to then continue investing in their company even when profits aren’t exactly plentiful.

It’s a paradox that the more professional and successful a business appears to be, the more successful they often are. People always judge a book by the cover, and the same principles apply when doing business. Clients want to feel confident that the company they hire is going to still be in business the following month.   It’s like the saying, “fake it ’til you make it!”

Investments need Maintenance

There is a particular house in my neighborhood that I often pass when walking my dog.  The front lawn of this home is brown and patchy looking, the weeds have overgrown, the paint on their front door and trim is faded and the landscaping is unkempt.  My husband said that he suspects that the house is in foreclosure and a “For Sale” sign will appear any day.  All the signs are there that this might be the case.

We see this with businesses as well when things don’t look as they should.  The website might be outdated in appearance, or the blog might be stagnant and hasn’t been touched in months or longer.  Or possibly it’s hosted by a free hosting site and loads very slowly, or is impossible to find in the search engines.  None of these examples leave a good impression on a potential client.

Don’t we wonder how successful a business can be when they’re a one-woman-show and calls or emails aren’t returned for days or longer, or nobody answers the phone?   And if service is shoddy and materials are non-existent or sloppy, it’s hard not to assume the worst. . . .

Don’t let this happen to your business!   Even when finances are tight,  there are three crucial places to invest in your business in order to look professional and profitable that won’t break the bank.

1. Yourself: Investing in yourself if always the best investment you can make. By taking continuing education in your field of expertise, and learning new information, your qualifications are expanded. A more qualified professional can charge more than their colleagues who haven’t continued their education.

Business coaching is almost always a smart investment when you hire a reputable coach who will hold you accountable to moving your business forward.   A survey in Manchester printed in 2001 by the Denver Post showed that nine in ten executives believe business coaching was well worth their time and money, and the ROI was more than $5 for each $1 spent.

2. Marketing materials: It’s important to have professional marketing materials that represent your company and can be utilized as leave~behinds, hand outs, and mailings. Corporate clients usually will ask for a mailed package of information before meeting with a business owner in person. A professional website is also crucial as 97% of people first research buying decisions online according to a study done by RainToday.com in January 2010.   Professionally made websites that are search engine optimized should pay for themselves in less than a year, and marketing materials can be created very reasonably through sites like VistaPrint.com.

3. An assistant: The only way to double production is by delegating responsibilities. Many health and wellness practitioners believe they can’t afford an assistant, yet the truth is that they can’t afford not to. Even if you can only afford to start with one or two days a week, what would additional help six to eight hours a week do for your business? An efficient assistant could do a lot of paperwork, client care and marketing tasks in thirty hours a month.  Look into hiring an intern who will work for free for work experience, or hire a college student for a reasonable hourly wage.

Consider how much of an investment you’ve given to these three areas so far this year, and if necessary, commit to investing in each of these three areas of your business. Then evaluate your ROI to determine how much more of an investment you need to make going forward.

I’d love for you to leave me a comment below. In return, you will automatically receive a follow link with the title of your last blog post. What are your thoughts on this topic?

Use photos for testimonials

Using testimonials is a powerful way to attract clients to your health and wellness practice.  If you’re a weight loss coach, having raving clients who have lost weight with your services will make your programs much more tempting to new clients.   Using testimonials will be effective if you keep the following strategies in mind.

1.Use photos and websites along with the names of your satisfied clients.  Not only does it make your testimonials more credible, the URLs make it possible for your prospects to possibly check with them as a reference.  Think about it, how believable is a first name and last initial?  Photos add an underlying message when prospective clients see people who they can relate to if they are about the same age, gender, size, etc.

2.If possible, add audio or video.  This would also add more “believability” to your testimonials.  Also, it’s easier for your customers to express their positive experience from benefiting from your programs and services through their own personal touch i.e. voice or video.

3.Present the testimonials in a nice yellow-shade box. Light Yellow has been shown to be the ideal color for testimonials in boxes.  Alternatively, you can go for “gray” shade depending on your sales copy’s color scheme.  Spend time formatting your testimonial page so it looks professional and attractive.

4.Make sure your testimonials are results-oriented.   Your testimonials shouldn’t simply say, “Wow Cheryl! You’re great!”  It should express how your service was of benefit to the client.  Ask your clients to write a testimonial that describes their situation before they hired me, compared to after using my service.

Keep these strategies in mind and your testimonials will be a powerful tool that helps your website attract more clients and profits!

Granted, there are a lot of mistakes that can be made when it comes to a website.  But from a search engine optimization perspective, failing to update your blog can have the most impact on search engine ranking.  For anyone who hopes to land their website on the first page of Google for keywords of their choice, updating their website with fresh and original content on a regular basis is a strategy that is easy and effective.

Most SEO experts recommend blogging at least weekly to garner favor with the search engines, if not daily until desired search engine position is achieved.  For many website owners, this is much easier said than done.  Inhibitions about writing skill combined with a lack of inspiration and time are the most popular excuses for non-bloggers.   Here are the top three ways to make writing and updating your blog part of your marketing habits.

1. Carry a notebook: There are daily experiences that will serve you well for blogging ideas.  For instance, just the other day while driving to pick up my daughters from camp I saw the Michigan Humane Society RV, which had their tagline printed on their vehicle, “Somebody Here Needs You”.  I wrote that down in my notebook as a possible blog post idea about creating an effective tag line.  Yet, here I’m using it for this blog post which just goes to show you, you don’t need to know exactly how you’re going to use  an idea, just write it down, and then use it!

2. Get someone to write for you: This can be a slippery slope as you don’t want your blog to be written completely by a ghost writer.  Your readers will usually pick up on a lack of transparency or authenticity.  You can however occasionally host guest bloggers which your readers will appreciate and it’s an effective way to create or strengthen joint venture partnerships.

3. Reuse content: Many business owners write weekly or monthly newsletters, and content can be recycled from those types of marketing materials.  Be cautious not to reuse content which appears elsewhere on the internet.  Google won’t regard content that isn’t original favorably, so if SEO is your goal, duplicating will be a waste of time.

If you decide to buy articles and materials, be sure to completely rewrite and reword them into something original.  Writers who sell content almost always sell to a multitude of buyers to maximize their profits.  Because of the expense, work and effort that goes into rewriting such content, many bloggers find it easier to write something from scratch to begin with.

Carve out an hour of time each week to write and update your blog posts.  The benefits of having a website which is consistently updated with fresh and unique content is a marketing strategy that will reward you in more ways than one.

What is your excuse for not blogging this week?  I’d love to know!  Please leave me a comment below.

Get busloads of traffic with SEO

Learning how to attract clients that are looking for what you have to offer is one of the most effective ways to get effortless leads and clients. Bringing more opportunities to your website isn’t difficult if you understand basic website optimization techniques. For instance, if you have a corporate lecture that you would like to promote to get booked for more workshops, simple SEO techniques might be all it takes to fill your calendar.

The goal is to get your website listed on page one of the search engines to dramatically increase your exposure and traffic. The higher your website is ranked, the more visitors and potential customers your site will attract. Depending on what type of website you have, the easier or harder this will be to accomplish. (By the way, the best website to have for SEO purposes and many other reasons, is WordPress.)

These techniques can work very well for local search terms which aren’t highly competitive. You aren’t going to get on page 1 for a competitive term like “corporate stress” without working a lot harder, but you may have an excellent chance of ranking well for your state or city+corporate stress, depending on how competitive that search term is currently.

The first step is to do a little keyword research using a free or paid keyword research tool to investigate which search terms are the most ideal. For the purpose of our example, let’s use “Michigan corporate stress” as a keyword phrase. Look for a phrase that gets some action, but not too much. 2,000 to 5,000 searches per month is a good range.

Once you have narrowed down your keywords, you are ready to get optimizing!

Here are the top five ways to optimize your website using your keywords of choice.

1. Create a page with your keywords in your title. If you have a WordPress site, simply click “add a page”, then title it using your keywords.

2. Write a compelling description of your workshop, using your keyword phrase at least a few times within your content. Use bold type the first time you mention your keyword phrase. Be sure to use your keywords as early in your paragraph as possible, but don’t overuse it either. Three times should suffice in a 300 word post.

3. Add a photo of your ebook cover or whatever photo that you have to accompany your post. Use your keyword phrase if it’s appropriate for your photo in your alternate text tag.

4. Write an article or a press release about your workshop or product and use your keyword phrase. Hyperlink your keyword phrase once or twice back to your page and post it on press release distribution sites.

5. If you have a WordPress site, use your All in One SEO plugin to create meta tags and further optimize your page.

These simple SEO strategies might be all you need to get your website for page one using the keywords for which you want to be highly ranked. All of these tasks should take less than an hour. Give it a few days and then Google yourself to see whether you’ve been moved to the head of the class by Google.

Approach referral partners

Getting referrals can make or break a business, and there are many ways to get them.  Creating happy customers who want to refer you their friends and family is the bread and butter to any business.  But for newer businesses who don’t have a large customer base, finding referral partners in a complementary business to your own, is a great way to jump start getting referrals.

The first step is to make a list of the most attractive local businesses who would be a good fit for your business. If you’re a holistic health coach, consider approaching local yoga and pilates studios, gyms, fitness centers, massage therapists, spas, alternative healers like Reiki practitioners, hypnotists, life coaches, acupuncturists, etc.  Find some local health and wellness magazines and circle the ads of people you would like to approach.  Make a list of 20 to 30 businesses to contact in the near future.  It’s a numbers game, so the more people contact, the more people you will have in your network.

The next step is to reach out to everyone on your list in an organized and systematic way.  Create a friendly email template that you can use over and over, yet personalized to each business.  Your letter should be friendly and non-salesy. Compliment them in a way that shows you’ve done your homework and know something about their business.  Also, share something about yourself and reveal what’s in it for them if you were to meet and share ideas.

Here’s a sample template:

Dear _____________,
How are you? I noticed your ad in Natural Awakenings and I saw on your website that you offer pilates classes.  I am a local health counselor, and I would love to connect with you and possibly meet at your office or for coffee to discuss how we could be potential referral partners.

I’d like to offer a teleseminar soon for my clients about exercise they can do even though they have bad knees, backs, etc.  I would love to chat more about this with you if you’d be interested in letting me interview you about pilates for the call and an upcoming article for my Examiner column.

If you’d like to contact me, please call or email me, etc.

Send these via email, which is the quickest way to connect. It’s difficult these days to get people on the phone.  You can follow up with a repeat email a week or two later if you don’t hear back from them.  People get busy and they forget to follow up.

Once you successfully connect with your dream referral partners, be sure to follow up with them after.  Send a thank you note, not an email, to tell them how excited you are to team up in the future on the joint ventures you discussed.

Some referral partners will be more fruitful than others, so it’s important to have a wide variety of people in your network.  Be sure to promote them as well by sharing their posts on Facebook, retweeting them on Twitter, and writing press releases about your upcoming joint events!

Let me make it Real Simple for you

You’ve no doubt seen this big orange button with the rainbow shaped white lines and a white circle.  But what exactly is it, and what does it do?  When my web savvy assistant Rachel asked me the other day, “What is RSS?”, I knew it was time to write this blog post. I had the topic written in a notebook for awhile now.  (Do you have a notebook where you write down future blog post ideas? Wait, you DO have a blog, right?)

Google defines RSS as “a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.”  Think of it as a way to subscribe without having to bog down your email.  If you click on the RSS feed button at the top of my website, a new window will open and you will have your choice of various locations where you would like my updated blog posts to be sent.  I like to read my RSS feeds in Google reader.

If you’re interested in having a website that is ranked well in the search engines, one excellent strategy for link building is to comment daily on other blogs in your niche.  Many experts recommend commenting on three blogs daily.  If you utilize RSS, all you have to do is login to your Google account, and then look for updated blog posts to leave comments.  This is a much more productive use of your time than checking sites one by one to look for updated posts.

Feed readers can make updating social networking sites simple as well.  Twitter replies and Facebook updates can also be syndicated to feed readers, which offers the opportunity to save a lot of wasted time checking these types of sites.

Make sure that your marketing efforts utilize RSS.  Talk to your webmaster if your current website doesn’t allow for syndication.  The more methods there are to reach potential clients and customers, the greater the opportunity to increase profits.  Many newsletter management companies will also allow you to offer this subscription method.

Are you new to RSS? Click on my feed button above at the very top green line of this page, and jump into the world of RSS feeds.  C’mon in, the water’s fine.   Encourage your newsletter readers, podcast listeners, and blog readers to sign up for your updates via RSS.  Consider offering special deals to reward your audience for taking your advice.

If you’re already familiar with this technology, please leave me a comment below. I’d love to know how you’ve utilized it to your advantage.  What types of information do you send to your feed reader and which feed reader would you recommend?  By the way, you can also subscribe to comments on my blog by clicking the orange RSS feed button that says “comments”.

Avoid being a stressed out busy bee

When you are in business for yourself, especially one that is conducted online, you’ll find there are a number of different things for you to learn about that can save you time and make you money. Outsourcing is by far one of the more exciting things to discover and put to use.

All too common is the business owner who feels they have to do everything themselves in order for things to go the way they want. This couldn’t be farther from the truth! In case you’re curious about why so many online business owners are singing the praises of outsourcing, keep reading to see just five of the many benefits to outsourcing many of your time consuming business tasks.

Remember, your job is to keep your business moving forward and bringing in profits. If you’re bogged down answering the phone, emails, and trying to learn how to create and update your website, that’s less time you have to work on your marketing plan and attracting clients.

More Value for Your Time

When you own a health and wellness related business, one of the most important things to remember is how much your time is really worth.  When you think about the dull or repetitive tasks that you are doing, you’ll find this work is not worth your high per hour price tag!  When you outsource, you’ll pay someone else to take care of those responsibilities while you give attention to the more important, money-making projects.

Saving Resources

Think about everything that goes into the tasks that you would outsource.  This will range from things like your time and space to costs such as internet and software. After awhile all of these costs add up. For instance, graphics software can get quite expensive.  If you are outsourcing an activity, you get more than just the task itself out of the way.  You will also get someone who specializes in areas of your business that you may not know quite as well as or have no desire to learn. More than likely these people will already have the tools needed to complete their assignment. Depending on the project, this might save you money and learning time.  This brings me to the next benefit of outsourcing.

Going to the Experts

The tasks you are outsourcing might not be ones that you have no desire to learn about, whether they are troubleshooting, manufacturing, taking orders, website design and maintenance, or something else.  By handing the work over to an expert who enjoys and makes it their business to know these things, you’ll be able to take advantage of their knowledge in the area without having to learn it yourself. This in turn will give your customers or clients more than you could possibly give them yourself.

Expand

When you outsource, you will soon realize that you are in a great place when it comes to getting more involved with your business.  You will be able to expand and provide everything your customers need.  Outsourcing frees you up to try new things with your business, learn more and experience new aspects of your industry.

Accountability

When you outsource, you will have a contract with the person or company you are working with. By having someone else who is depending on work from you, you are more apt to stay ahead of the game by planning better and making sure that you’re tasks are getting completed as well.

When you first begin learning about and implementing outsourcing techniques within your business, you’ll find out those boring or repetitive tasks can easily be handed off to someone who enjoys doing them. This will allow you, as the business’ owner, to free up more time to concentrate on more important aspects of your health and wellness business such as product creation, advertising, networking, workshops and lectures, and other marketing practices.

These are the things that will help your business to grow even more profitable.

One of my most favorite internet marketing tools is the Google alert.  It’s the fastest and most effective way to monitor what is being said about you and your company.  Whether the feedback is positive or less than positive, it’s imperative to be able to respond appropriately for maximum impact, as well as the ability for damage control if necessary.

Let me give you a fun example of how this works.  I recently blogged about one of my favorite cookie companies.  I recommended their company and explained why I am such a fan.  Within 24 hours of posting my glowing review of their company, they contacted me to say thank you and asked for my address and permission to send me a few boxes of free cookies. (They are healthy cookies, don’t worry, which is why I was so excited.)

How did they know?  Most likely, (although I’ve love to believe that my health blog is so well known that they are regular readers) they have a Google alert set up.   Google alerts send notices whenever your search term pops up on the internet.  Using these alerts are easy, you can set them up in your Google account and then you’ll be automatically be kept in the loop about any topic or search term you have chosen.

You’ll have the choice of being notified immediately, or having emails sent once a day or less frequently.  Once you receive your alerts in your in box, it’s important to take action.  If the mention of your company is flattering,  send a note of thanks, or better yet, free samples.  Post the link to Twitter, Facebook, and any other social networks you belong to, and thank your fan on your blog if it’s appropriate.

If the mention is a complaint, there is the opportunity to made amends before it snowballs into a bigger issue. Often a simple apology (maybe cookies) is all that’s needed to soothe an  unhappy customer.

If you have a story or comment to share about using Google alerts, please leave me a comment below.  I’ll respond just as soon as I’m finished writing my next blog post about the awesomeness of iPads, or hmm, maybe summer cruises in Alaska?