Not only have I been a big fan of Les McKeown’s work from afar, but his quarterly Predictable Success workshop happened to fall the day before another conference I was attending started. Perfect!

Unlike other workshops I’ve been to, there was no workbook. Basically the two books are the workshop material – Predictable Success and The Synergist.

The workshop was a great refresher on the model, and its components. But it also cemented the concepts further through examples and attendee discussion. I was in mind heaven working through the concepts! The link between the personality styles – visionary, operator, processor and synergist – and the stages on the Predictable Success growth model were covered at length.

And it was through this discussion I really grasped what my business needed to do to move forward to Predictable Success, and what type of team members I required to get there. I now also understand better the Predictable Success stage that is best for long-term clients, and the one that is best as a short-term option.

The best thing about this model is you don’t have to learn the concepts and mould yourself to it. It is based on many years of observations and fact, which means you fit somewhere in the model and work your way to Predictable Success.

One of the homework items I was set before attending the workshop was the Predictable Success quiz 1 and quiz 2. Something I forgot to do (oops!). Les works through your profile in the workshop, so it’s in your best interests to get this done. Even for those not attending, the quiz gives you such an insight into your business and your personality style, I highly recommend you do it.

I know I will continue to reread both Predictable Success and The Synergist as “workbooks”, but also highlight and tag substantially. And I will regularly retake the quiz to see if my Synergistic skills are improving.

If you haven’t read either of the books I highly recommend both. You can get them here:

And if you do plan on attending Les’s workshop, read the books (and do the quizzes) beforehand.

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Numbers Are Life » Business Growth

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Successful marketing involves building a relationship with a prospect and turning them into a satisfied customer who will keep coming back to the business and encourage their friends to do the same. Online marketing uses this idea, but the relationship is initially built via the Internet or email.

Social networking websites – including Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn – are not just another way for teenagers to talk to their friends, but have already become additional tools businesses use to market themselves. In fact, LinkedIn is aimed at professionals wanting to create a business network. These websites can be used to tell prospects a little bit about you and your business, leading them to your business website to find out more. Invite business contacts and friends to join and then link with your contacts’ networks as well – the potential is unlimited. Sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn groups are best used regularly to build ongoing relationships, but not for sales pitches.

Email newsletters are another ideal online marketing tool for building relationships. They can be used to communicate with past, present and future customers – all that is needed is the contact’s email address and permission to use it. Electronic newsletters can be done from the office using regular email programs or, even better, there are database management programs available that manage the whole process, including distribution, tracking and spam compliance for people who unsubscribe.

For those who love to write, try a blog. Search engines love blogs because the content is constantly updated and so this is a great way of ensuring you and your business feature in search results. Free blogs can be set up at www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.org. Blogs build credibility and expert status because writing about your chosen topic puts you in direct contact with your target market. They also attract leads and begin the relationship-building process because prospects can read what you have to say on the topic. Once in the habit of writing regularly, a selection of blog posts can be combined to produce an e-book that is published on your website or used as an incentive for people joining your business mailing list.

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Before you do any sort of marketing, you need to work out your strategy by answering the following questions:

• What do you want to achieve through your marketing? For instance, is it to build your brand, attract customers, or tell potential customers you are there?

• Who is your target market? Such as fellow business mums, teenage boys, men aged 25-40 years.

• What is the best marketing method for your business? For example, brochures, website, direct mail or networking.

• What are you going to say? Will your marketing include a special offer, opening specials, or your business tagline?

• What makes you special? Work our your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) that makes you stand out from your competitors, such as “We are a networking group for business mums” or “We only sell Fairtrade products”.

Once you know what you want to say, to whom and how, you are ready to get started on the marketing itself.

There are many marketing techniques you can use to build your business profile. Some will just cost your time and others may involve a small outlay, but the results are worth your effort and money.

• Give something away for details – it could be a free pen with every purchase, your monthly newsletter or a free e-book, but make sure you use the opportunity to get their information at the same time. In return for the item ask them to supply their name, email address and phone number so you can add them to your list and market to them in the future (with their permission of course!).

• Think local – find out who your local media is (newspapers, magazines, websites, radio, newsletters, TV stations) and tell them about your business’s grand opening, new product line or new service. Local media always like local stories so make sure you promote the local angle prominently.

• Competitions – give away something of value to your target market and before long you will have a healthy list of interested prospective customers.

• Team up with other businesses – cross-promote each other to build customer lists for both. You can offer a prize from one of the businesses or discount vouchers as an incentive and share the cost.

• Editorials – make a list of your industry magazines, appropriate sections in metro newspapers, radio and TV shows that cover your industry and tell them when something important happens with your business. Remember that while editorials carry a lot of credibility with the public, you are not paying for the media space or time and you have no say over what is included or when.

• Online PR – after sending your press release to the media, upload it on the free PR websites, like Free Press Release and 24-7 Press release, to increase your search ranking.

• Be an expert – use the knowledge you have in your industry to position yourself as an expert by writing for an industry magazine, website or newsletter, speaking at industry events and information sessions or publishing your own blog or e-book.

• Use the Internet – list your business on free industry websites and business directories like Aussie Web, Hot Frog or Linked In. Make sure your listing contains all the key words potential customers are likely to type in to search engines so you come up in searches.

• Network – find out about your industry associations and networking groups, as well as complementary groups, like Business Mums, and become a member. All you need is your business card and a willingness to talk about your business.

• Don’t forget your existing customers – keep in regular contact with your customers through an email newsletter. This is a great way to tell them what is going on in your business and keep you at the top of their minds. A good content mix is an informative article, special offer or giveaway and tips or tricks to help.

• Word of mouth – an often forgotten marketing method, but the one that I think is the most valuable. If someone is happy with your product or service ask them to tell their friends.

All these tips involve some research on your part, but very little (or no) money. They are a great way to get your name out there and get customers clambering for your product or service.

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So why haven’t you gained any more leads than if you’d hired someone to hand out a leaflet outside the exhibition hall? The answer might be something to do with the way you market your products or services.

There are some key marketing solutions that could make all the difference at your next exhibition and have you walking away with enough leads to keep you going until your next show.

Don’t rely on the organisers to get people to your stand. Your marketing activity surrounding an exhibition should be concentrated on encouraging prospective customers to come and see you at the show so they can look at your product and meet your staff.

Define Your Market

One of the first tasks is to research your target customer base. Go through your database and choose the clients you want to concentrate on. The next step is to determine your key messages and objectives and create an integrated campaign to communicate your key messages.

Target Customers Before the Exhibition

Make them feel special by sending them a personal email inviting them to exhibition. Use this invitation to highlight any special deals you will have at the show as part of your pre-event marketing.

Link Marketing with a Sales Promotion

An effective way to build you client database is to have your stand visitors give you some basic information. As an incentive to fill in the form they can be entered into a draw for a major prize or be given a small branded token. This relatively simple task allows you to attract, qualify and retain customers.

Hold On-stand Activity

This activity could be tailored around the sales promotion, for example your promotion is to give away a car so have the car on the stand and people can see what is on offer. Attendees always respond to a fun activity so try a chocolate wheel that can be spun for a prize, or a game. Brochures can be given to people with their tickets inviting them to take part in your stand activity. Another alternative is to have staff handing out branded gifts, like coloured chocolates, sweets or sample bags.

Effective Stand Design

Keep your stand design simple with a range of graphics, media and new technology to showcase your product or message. Concentrate on one ‘hero’ product/service and focus your marketing around it. Stick to the theme by using toning colours and images and, if you can, have an element positioned above the stand, like a banner or revolving sign. This will draw exhibitors’ attention to your stand as soon as they walk through the door.

Sing from the Same Hymn Sheet

Ensure everyone working on your stand is using the same information. There’s nothing worse than two customers comparing notes over a drink and discovering one got a completely different deal simply because they spoke to a different staff member. Have a marketing plan prepared before the exhibition, including costs and show deals, and give it to everyone working on the stand. Outline the end cost, not just the percentage off or multiple sale discounts, in the plan and your stand marketing material so your staff – and the customer – know exactly how much they will save by buying at the show.

Follow Up Your Prospects

Finally, once you have packed up your stand and your feet have recovered from the exhibition, it is important to follow up on your leads. Contact your potential and existing customers via email, letter, phone or in person and reinforce the exhibition deals to remind them.

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Maintenance needs to happen on a weekly basis regardless of who is doing it. The first step is to pick a day. You need a regular appointment with yourself (or your bookkeeper) to keep up with the paperwork, so pick a day. Let’s say that day is Tuesday. Tuesday is selected because you have to pay your employees anyway so you may as well do everything in one hit!

So what tasks are required to stay on top of all of this paperwork?

1. Your paperwork needs a home before you enter it into your accounting software. For this example we’ll assume that you enter all supplier invoices before being paid.

2. This means you need a home for:

a. Supplier invoices to be entered
b. Supplier invoices paid
c. Supplier statements
d. Customer invoicing information (if invoiced after the fact) OR
e. Daily register and EFTPOS receipts (for retail)
f. Bank statements (I recommend Bookzkeeper)

3. I have always found that manilla files work well for a, b, c and d above. Using this system you would only have 1 weeks’ worth of information in the files at any one time.

4. With daily register and EFTPOS receipts I recommend an envelope to keep them in one place. Just write the date on the top left hand corner. This can usually be kept near your register so that at the end of each week, that week’s envelopes can be transferred to your office after doing the reconciling process.

5. If you keep the manilla files near the recycling bin, you can sort your paperwork into the appropriate manilla file as you open the mail and get rid of the junk (to be paper recycled) When Tuesday comes around take your manilla files and:

a. Enter your supplier invoices
b. Apply payments made to supplier invoices
c. Process customer invoices or cash register sales information
d. Reconcile bank and credit card statements
e. Make payments to suppliers – you should always have a day that you pay them
f. Pay your employees (if you have any)

6. Now that feels good doesn’t it? All sorted and empty manilla files! Of course, you have to do it again next week but if you follow this method it is much easier to keep on top of your paperwork.

7. On a monthly basis you will need to check your supplier statements against your system. I’ll be honest -this is not something I enjoy doing. I used to put it off and get in a mess with missing invoices and incorrectly applied payments etc, so I got someone else to do it.

8. The maintenance program above will only work if you’re willing to commit to the process. If you’re not willing to do it then look around for someone to do this for you and get them to commit to this weekly process. Really be honest with yourself here – let’s face it, you can probably earn a lot more money doing what you do best than spending your time doing a job that a bookkeeper can do much quicker and probably much cheaper than your hourly rate.

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I have worked in writing, public relations and marketing for more than 10 years, so recognising material – particularly in print – which has been paid for has become second nature. However my friend said she found it difficult to spot the difference sometimes.

Here is a guide to media space and time that has been paid for, and that which is free and generated through public relations.

I think I can safely say it is easy to spot most advertising – it comes in breaks in your favourite TV programs, between music on the radio, down the side of a web page or sometimes pops up from the page, and surrounds articles in newspapers and magazines.

Where it becomes hazy is when the information is included in an article or advertorial (an advertisement made to look more legitimate as an editorial piece – these should carry the word “advertorial” and “advertisement” at the top), in a news or current affairs item or when the presenter speaks about a product as they would discuss the news, similar to John Laws’ Cash for Comment affair.

The job of a PR consultant is to generate publicity for their client. Their client isn’t paying for the time or space and the information considered more credible by the public. Examples include an article, news broadcast or TV segment. This media coverage is achieved through many avenues such media liaison, media releases, article marketing, public speaking, case studies and blogging.

Many of the articles you read in the paper, magazines or online and items you heard on the news or radio today would have been generated through public relations. For example after the federal government’s recent increase in the first home buyers’ grant a host a organisations, from real estate agents to banks, sent out press releases commenting on the grant and what it meant for the economy. They were positioning themselves as experts, or contacts the media could use when covering the story.

Whether the information came to the journalist via a media release or they chased it up through contacts, it is still from PR. The biggest difference between getting something published once because the media outlet liked your story, and getting regular coverage, comes from maintaining a good relationship with journalists, producers and editors. Good PR, whether done by you or a consultant you hired, leads to you being the contact the media calls on when they want to know something about your topic.

Advertising is about guaranteeing your message gets out there when you want through payment. It is seen as less credible because the organisation has paid for the space or time. However public relations is about communicating your message to your public, usually via the media. A company or issue receiving media coverage is seen as more credible because the journalist or presenter has endorsed the message.

This article first appeared on Flying Solo. See more by Johanna Baker-Dowdell at http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/p261050105_Joh-Baker-Dowdell.html

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The way to make sure your media release grabs the editor’s attention – and isn’t filed away with the other hundreds of releases received – is to make it newsworthy. This is difficult to define as newsworthy means something different to everybody, but bear in mind your release will not be considered unless it is of interest to readers. This means promoting your local connection if you are targeting local media, giving your opinion as an expert on a trend for industry-specific media, or tailoring a product launch release to appeal to a certain section of the media, such as fashion or pets.

Here are some tips for a great media release:

• Like a newspaper article, the introductory paragraph of a media release must contain something that interests the journalist. This is called the “hook”. The first paragraph must contain as many of the following as possible: who, what, where, when, why and how. If the introduction is longer than one or two sentences (across three lines of text) try paring it down and put the remaining who, what, where, when, why and how points in the second paragraph.

• Write in an inverted pyramid style, ie the most important points are in the first paragraph, followed by the second most important and ending with the least important. This way your media release can be edited from the bottom to fit without losing your message.

• Write short sentences and keep paragraphs to one or two sentences.

• Make sure you quote someone – yourself or another person relevant to the topic from your organisation – so the journalist can include the quotes in the article. This gives the story a voice.

• Do a spelling and grammar check and get someone else to read the media release before you send it out to ensure it reads well and makes sense.

• Keep the body of the media release to one page if possible.

• Put the words “Media Release” at the top-right of the page with the date underneath.

• Add a memorable headline underneath the date so your media release stands out. Keep it to one line and write as a sentence, not in upper case. The headline should be in bold font.

• Ensure you include contact details at the bottom of the release. There must be at least a name, title, phone number and email, but it’s also good to include an after-hours number or alternative contact and website address. This ensures the journalist can contact you if they want further information or would like to do an interview.

• A company information paragraph, called a “boiler plate”, is not necessary but is useful to add at the end of the media release. This usually includes information about when the organisation started, what product or service it provides and where it is located. It is similar to the “About Us” page many company websites have.

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Well, do you know how much revenue you made last month? Are you aware of all your expenses that were incurred? Are you aware of the money you owe and what is owed to you? If you are not aware of these things, you are not running a business, you are living in a fantasy world. Harsh I know but the truth hurts!

If a feeling of dread overcame you when you read the above, you’re probably thinking, what do I do now? Simple, follow the steps below.

1. Collect all your paperwork together and sort into piles that relate to:

a. Supplier invoices and payments
b. Customer invoices and payments
c. Employee payments
d. Bank & credit card statements, BAS, ATO correspondence

2. Make the decision to either sort the mess out yourself or hire a bookkeeper / Virtual Assistant that can sort it all out for you. Unsure what to look for in a bookkeeper? Click here and subscribe to receive a special report on what to look for.

3. Do you have a computerised accounting software package? You need to have access to this (or give your bookkeeper access to it) to get yourself up to date.

4. Enter all relevant information from a, b & c above.

5. Take your bank and credit card statements, and check (reconcile) that all transactions are accounted for in your accounting software program.

Even if you do not feel comfortable with reconciling as a process you can simply use a bank register (or credit card register) within your accounting software to check that each item that is on your bank statement (and/or credit card statement) also appears in your bank register. Then you can hand over to someone else to complete the reconciliation process (knowing that as far as you can tell all of the transactions are entered). Remember that the bank (or credit card) statement is considered the holy grail (except of course if there are cash transactions involved). All of your statements must be checked (reconciled) in order for your records to be accurate and to complete accurate BAS returns.

6. Okay, so if you have completed this yourself give yourself a huge pat on the back (insert glass of wine, beer or chocolate, whatever is your congratulatory gift to yourself! – I like chocolate myself!) If you have handed this task over to anyone else and it is now completed, congratulate yourself (as above) and them , pay their bill promptly and look forward to maintenance mode, because you do not want to be in this position again, do you?

7. Maintenance mode, well this needs an entire article so stay tuned for this. But, the important thing to remember is that it is much better for you and your business to “KNOW” your numbers then go into a cold sweat and have no idea!

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Of course, you could just be avoiding doing something – and that has the same impact as analysis paralysis.

Analysis Paralyisis occurs when you become obsessed with knowing EVERYTHING there is to know about something. When you get caught in this trap, you spend all your time analysing, and no time doing – and this is not healthy.

Avoidance generally occurs because you can’t ‘see’ what needs to be done and it all looks too much! Often avoidance occurs because you haven’t done the Analysis….

I am the first person to recommend that you spend time doing your research and understanding what you’re getting yourself into before you do anything – however, you need to balance that level of analysis with the need to actually do something.

After all, nothing really happens until a sale is made… and a sale only happens when you take action!

Here are some indicators that you might be stuck in Analysis Paralysis or simply avoiding taking action:

1. You’re constantly researching and in doing so, you find more that you need to know before you can move forward.
2. You keep asking the same question, of the same and different people, and getting the same answer – but you want a different answer
3. You’re too busy to implement any of the strategies you decide on
4. Something else always comes up that needs attention – at times, the filing may seem very important!

I sometimes find myself sitting at my desk in the office, organizing the icons the desktop – and it’s when that happens that I stop and ask myself why I’m really doing it…. This is a sure sign that I am avoiding something!

Fear Plays A Part

Sometimes, Analysis Paralysis and Avoidance is due to fear – fear of not knowing enough, fear of failing or possibly fear of succeeding (to name a few) – and we really have to overcome that fear.

Sometimes, doing the analysis helps allay our fears – particularly the fear of not knowing however, be aware that we can take analysis to a level that it becomes avoidance!

But What About Overwhelm?

Sometimes the lack of action is due, purely and simply, to OVERWHELM. There is so much information to take in, so many things to do to make that action happen, so many people to coordinate – that we freeze and don’t know where to start and we literally freeze. (Sometimes, I just want to go back to bed and pretend the world does’t exist!)

How Can You Help You?

When this happens, I find that breaking the activities down into very, tiny chunks really helps.

Then, I’m able to write myself out a step by step plan to just get started.By ‘chunking it down’, I’m able to tick off the activities as I do them and feel a real sense of achievement, which then helps me take the next step. Before I know it, I’ve finished my project and moving forward!

It sometimes difficult doing this by myself, so I work with an accountability partner or a coach, to help me gain clarity around what is important, what isn’t, what can be done now and what needs to wait until other activities are finished. When I work with other Business People, this is often the first thing we do – get clear on the goals and the actions that need to be taken.

Some great resources that I have found in helping me gain clarity include:

Jacqueline Wales from The Fearless Factor has some excellent ways to overcome Fear and achieve great success.

Kate Sanner from Boost Your Self Confidence In 90 Days works with Women (and Men) to boost self confidence to achieve success.

I had the privilege to interview both of these Women on the Stretch Your Mind and Body talk show and they offer a lot of value.

Please share your techniques for overcoming Analysis Paralysis and Avoidance — what works for you….

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Are you going to do any planning? Do you take time out from your ‘day to day’ tasks to review your business at all? If not, WHY NOT?

Planning is key to business success! The one phenomenon I have observed in my business (and techie) career is that when we don’t take time out to look ahead and actually see where we’ve pointed our ship, we will often find a iceberg to hit.

I know that the term Strategic Planning can seem scary – but really, all it means is to develop a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal.

Long term goal setting can be challenging to most because the ‘big’ goals are overwhelming and it’s hard to ‘see’ and many people set ‘long term’ goals and leave it at that…. and then wonder how they are going to make that $1million in 5 years!

The thing is that long term goals are GREAT! They keep us thinking of the ‘bigger picture’ but we really need to be setting shorter term goals based on these bigger goals. Break our goals down into smaller, more achievable ones – Yearly, Quarterly and Monthly and then use the monthly goals to create daily and weekly work plans.

I have no end of trouble trying to forecast where I want to be in 2 years – I’m so used to how quickly the world changes that I know that what I choose today will, most likely, be out of date. Instead, I choose to have an intention – based on my spiritual and emotional needs – and then look at what I need to do in my business and personal life to support that intention.

So, let’s say I want to earn $600k in the next 2 years to become debt free. I could say that I need to earn $300k in clear profit each year – but I find that utterly overwhelming. Instead, I choose to say that I want to earn $5,000 a month and based on what I am doing, develop ‘something’ that will generate me ongoing, residual income.

I know that focussing on the overall goal of becoming debt free, a ‘minimum’ earn each month and a focus on creating something that will keep on earning for me will keep me heading in the right direction.

I KNOW the numbers don’t stack up! I KNOW that all of my goals aren’t specific! What it does do though, is allow me to set my work plan each day and each week to move closer to my goals.

At the end of each month, I sit down (with my wonderful Husband) and review my activities in my business and ask myself how these are helping me achieve my larger goal.

I have to say that some months I may pull in more than $5000 a month but on reflection, the work isn’t helping me reach my bigger goal – it’s short term and instant gratification stuff. I then need to consider, in the cold light of day, how each opportunity fits in to my ‘master plan’ and, sometimes I do ‘turn away’ opportunity – because it doesn’t fit with my longer term game plan.

Now, I know this sounds wishy washy and not inline with many of the Guru recommendations, but for me, it works.

I urge you, give it a go – what do you need to be doing today in your business to meet your own emotional and spiritual needs and wants for the next 2 to 5 years? Share your thoughts below….

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