Hey Entrepreneurs! Design Your Website for Your Clients, Not for YOU

I attract my fair share of inquires almost daily from entrepreneurs about how to design a good website. The email or phone call usually starts off with “What information should I include on my website?” when the question should really be “How do I design a website that my clients will love?”

These days, if you don’t have an online presence you either are brand new in business or you just never got around to it. If you’re at the stage where you realize how important it is to have a website, this is a good blog entry for you.

First off, you need to think like your TARGET CLIENT. What do they want to see on your website? Probably not huge photos of you all over the place. If you’re stumped as to what they want here’s a handy list:

Services - What are you selling? How can you help them? What are the benefits of your product or service? Don’t lump all your services on one page. Give each service a separate page so that you can give as much info as possible about each area you focus on (this will also be good for your search engine optimization).

Resources – What tools and tips can you provide to help your visitors? You can write articles detailing solutions for common problems experienced by your target client. You can provide case studies telling visitors how others have received benefit from using your product/service. What tips sheets can you give freely? Are there great books you can recommend in a Suggested Reading area on your website?

Events – What’s going on in your business? Are you giving any seminars? Holding any networking events? How can your clients experience meeting you out there in the business world.

FAQ – This is really important. You need to provide the answers to questions you most commonly receive about your business. This will cut down on unnecessary communication.

Pricing – According to MarketingSherpa.com, the number one piece of information that visitors MOST WANT to see on your website is HOW MUCH? Put yourself in their shoes. How frustrating is it when you spend a lot of time on a site learning about the business but nowhere can you find out how much it costs. This is common in the coaching industry and it’s VERY annoying. I have my pricing listed right on my site. It serves to separate the serious enquires from the “just kinda wanna know”.

Your Company’s Background – Put this page as far away from services as possible. Although visitors will want to know the history of your business, that’s not their first concern. They first want to know HOW you can help them. Then they want to know if you’ve got what it takes to help them. See Bio below.

Your Bio – Let your target client know about your personal background. I have a challenge for you however – try to word your bio so that it shows how your experience can help them. What’s in your background, credentials, and training that will give them what they want?

Your Photo – Visitors DO want to know what you look like. Please get a professional photo taken of yourself. The one that Aunt Edna took 12 years ago on a family outing won’t help you here. You need to be dressed professionally and have a pleasant expression on your face. Make it trustworthy while you’re at it.

I could go on and on but it’s getting late so I’ll end here. The one piece of advice I have for entrepreneurs everywhere is to think like your target client. What can you give them that they most want to know?

Grow Your Business and Prosper!
Suzanne Muusers
Business Coach for Entrepreneurs & Financial Advisors
http://www.prosperitycoaching.biz/

Stages of a Start Up – What the Entrepreneur Can Expect

Many of my clients have wanted to know what they can expect when starting a business in regards to cashflow, marketing, how to get referrals, and how long it all takes. So here's an article I wrote for ezinearticles.com about the Stages of a Start Up - What the Entrepreneur Can Expect.




When you were starting out in business, no one told you it would take two to four years to become an "overnight success", did they?

That's because no one really knows how much time it takes to become financially successful in a new business venture. It tends to be different for everyone, based on your skills as an entrepreneur, your start up budget, and your willingness to take risks.

Throughout the years I have noticed a distinct "start up path" with my coaching clients. It can be a rough pathway, at times a jungle, but getting there is half the fun. In this article, we are going to investigate the stages of a start up entrepreneur. We'll take a look at what a hypothetical entrepreneur can expect and what to watch out for. We'll examine some "what ifs" and lay out an entrepreneurial path that you may or may not chose to follow.

Year One – Getting Your Name Out There

At this stage you're an infant business owner. You're learning who you are; what you're good at. You're the person with the "big idea" and you begin to recognize that you might be able to make money at it.

You may decide to keep your "day job" for the first year to provide income while you're building the business. Learning to be patient is essential during this phase because you're likely doing a lot and not getting much in return in the way of income. But that's ok. You may need to save 6 to 12 months of living expenses to augment your income when you leave the safety net of your day job.

So you begin to experiment with company names. You investigate legal entities for your business, depending on whether you'll have partners or go it alone. You print your first business card. It's not the best example of a cohesive brand, but it will do for now. You use your cell phone as your business phone number. Your home computer becomes your business computer.

You begin to develop your 30 second commercial. It's a bit shaky, but it gets the point across. You start the networking circuit to build awareness. You want to hit the ground running and you're a little disappointed that the revenue doesn't roll in as fast as you thought.

You land a few clients. You're elated, but it wears off quickly. You keep going. You're undercharging and working long hours, but you may not recognize it at this point. How can someone who works so much make so little? Oh well, you keep going.

Year Two – Growing the Garden

At this stage you've grown up a little to become a teenager business owner. You're getting better at what you do and the word is getting out. You're still working like mad, but it's all starting to make sense.

You recognize that you'll need a better Brand if you're going to attract better clients, so if you're smart you hire a professional designer and do a brand overhaul. You re-work your 30 second commercial and it starts to sound more like you. You come up with a great benefit driven tagline and excellent copy to market yourself. You redesign your website and re-create your marketing materials based on your newfound knowledge and you get out there again to sell yourself.

When it’s time to get a paycheck, you'll need to determine a reasonable salary for someone in a similar position. Don't get greedy though. Keep your lifestyle modest with an eye to the future. You are building a business empire but you'll need to reinvest your profits for quite some time.

You begin to realize that growing your business is a bit like being a gardener. You're building relationships that plant seeds which grow into vines. In time, flowers on the vines will bloom. Some vines may take longer to bloom than others and may need additional fertilizer and loving care. Eventually, though, many vines bloom with elaborate intricate flowers yielding strong business relationships that benefit your company for many years.

At the end of this stage you raise your fees which has a big impact on your profitability. You realize it's better to charge at the higher end of the market. You may lose a client or two, but you'll have more cash in the bank and more free time to enjoy your personal life.

Year Three – Becoming an Expert

Congratulations on becoming an adult business owner! Clients you worked with in year one and two are referring business to you. You realize how powerful referrals are and you work on developing a distinct referral strategy.

You've invested in additional education and certification in your field. This gives you credibility and allows you to be more selective in choosing your clients. You no longer have to take the clients that give you headaches and don’t pay their bills. People are coming to you with questions because they recognize that you have the expertise to provide the answers. Your close ratio has improved significantly because the referrals you receive are already pre-sold on your services. This means you don’t have to work as hard as you did in the past. You’ve got more time for yourself, more time to live your life.

By now you've built network of contacts and you've established yourself as an entrepreneur in the business community. The relationships you worked so hard to build are beginning to provide a return on investment. You've identified the networking groups that yield the best results, and you've let others fall by the wayside.

You're now making more revenue and you're excited about the possibilities you envisioned since day one. Suddenly there's more money for extras. The old worn out office desk has out lived out its usefulness and you begin to shop around for something more suitable. You decide to invest in new technology and systems that you'll need to be more efficient.

Year Four – Reaping the Rewards

You are now a mature business owner and a master-gardener. Your many vines have ripened with age and are producing hoards of beautiful blooms that reach geographical areas you never imagined. You need only to fertilize and water the vines occasionally to keep them healthy and happy.

By this time you have figured out how to take your company to the next level. You've created a virtual business and a team of experts to guide you: Employees or independent contractors, Attorneys, Accountants, Business Coaches, Mentors, Financial Advisors, Graphic Designers, Writers, and anyone else you may need to help build your wealth. You realize that you don't have to do everything yourself. There are others out there who specialize in what you need and they can easily be on your team. All you have to do ask them.

Business comes to you easily and frequently. You’ve developed a reputation as a specialist in a specific area by leveraging the power of niche marketing. Your referral partners know when to send you business. You receive new client inquires almost daily and you've learned to clone yourself and refer business to others on your team.

Your new business comes from referrals, the internet, and networking. You write about your specialty, you speak to groups with confidence, and you are well known in the community.

Conclusion:

Your four-year "overnight success" was a long road to travel. You learned that you need the support of your spouse, friends, and family to get you through each start up phase. Going forward you may need the support of a coach or a mentor – someone to hold you accountable for your key success actions. This point is critical. It's focused action that gets results, not rhetoric or vision.

©Copyright 2007- Suzanne Muusers - All Rights Reserved

Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long the article is printed in its entirety including the about the author information, you leave all the links active, and you do not edit the article in any way, and include the copyright statement.

About the author
Suzanne Muusers is a Business Coach and Business Expert based in Scottsdale, Arizona and is the creator of The Two Page Mini Business Plan. She is a credentialed member of the International Coach Federation and works exclusively with entrepreneurs and financial advisors who want to leave behind their lives as business workers to become business owners earning six figures and above annually. Visit her site: http://www.prosperitycoaching.biz/

Make More Money Now! How to Increase Revenue if you're a Professional Charging by the Hour or Project

Do you charge by the project or hour and find yourself underestimating how much time you will put into the job? Does it seem like you’re always working? Does your bank balance suffer from low self-esteem? You're not alone.

Start up entrepreneurs and well-established businesses alike suffer from cashflow instability. It can be really tough to balance time and revenue, especially in the early years. It's likely that unless you learn to overcome this obstacle to profitability, you could be doomed to walking the thin line between overwhelm and poverty forever.

Few are born with an entrepreneurial gene that allows them to run a profitable business. Profitability means that you have plenty of dough to pay the bills, both business and personal, and enough left over to really enjoy yourself. So how can you learn to be profitable? We’ll discuss a few strategies that every entrepreneur can put into practice.

Real World Examples:

You're a Public Relations professional. You quote a price to write and distribute a Press Release about an Interior Designer’s Open House. You think “I’ve got plenty of relevant contacts in this niche industry. This should be easy and should take me no more than two hours.” It ends up taking you twice as long which reduces your fee substantially.

You’re an Architect. You estimate it will take you three hours to create a basic kitchen rendering for a new client and you quote her a reasonable fee. Both of you are happy until you begin the job and realize it’s more technical than you’d assumed. You want to do the job with your customary high integrity and work ethic and ten hours later you finish.

You’re a CPA just starting out in the business. You quote a client a fee to do his monthly accounting only to realize later that this client needs more hand holding than usual which forces your hourly down the drain. Between doing the work and meetings with the client, you decide you’ll never make any money.

Big AHA #1: The first step to profitability is to realize that you must be paid for ALL your time. Make sure you factor in time for client and vendor meetings. Time for research. Time for travel (yes, you need to be paid for this too – your time is not free.) You may need to double your fees to make any real money. If that’s what it takes, that’s what you need to do.

Big AHA #2: Slow down! Don’t rush to quote a fee. If your instinct is to quote a fee, stop and reassess, take a breath, and then tell the client you’ll get back to them. Putting a quote together takes time and if you rush into it, you’ll always lose. There’s nothing wrong with telling a prospect that you’ll get back to them. Things ALWAYS take longer than you think. Make sure you understand the requirements of the project. Delineate what the project includes and what it doesn't include. There are always follow up tasks, revisions, and busy work you didn’t plan on. If you’re concerned that you’ll lose jobs because your price is too high, then you may not be ready for this step. You may need to ease into raising your fees.

Big AHA #3: Increase your worth in your own eyes! Many entrepreneurs have a subconscious voice that doesn't believe they are worth higher fees. Take stock of your true worth as a professional. Do you have enough experience? Do you need to learn more? Do you provide a quality service? Are your fees on the low end? Is there a gap between where you are and where you should be? If you change nothing, nothing will change.

What now?
Truly examine who you are and where you are as an entrepreneur and independent professional. Then, give your bank balance a boost and take a risk to raise your fees. To take it a step further, think about how you could create passive revenue so that your income and time are not tied up in your business output. Create time to live your life on your own terms.

Grow Your Business and Prosper!

Suzanne Muusers

Business Coach for Entrepreneurs and Financial Advisors

http://www.prosperitycoaching.biz/

The Memorable 30 Second Commercial - Wow them with the Benefits!

Entrepreneurs are in the business of selling themselves.

Everyday.

Learning how to do this authentically and in a way that's memorable is one of the keys to business success. There are tons of Financial Advisors, Bankers, Realtors, Insurance Brokers, Mortgage Brokers, and Business Coaches. How do you stand out in the crowd?

Start by creating a 30 second commercial that gives you some oomph! Aim to really wow them! Begin to think like your target client. Get into their head. What are the benefits you provide your clients?

Let's start with Ted's example: he's an independent Financial Advisor

Ted: I'm a CFP with ten years in the business. I work with people to create a long term investment strategy.

Make it memorable: I'm a Certified Financial Planner and I help middle to upper income families, especially engineers and college professors build wealth and stability so that they can sleep at night.

Notice how this time Ted explains his designation and calls attention to his target client. Why? People need to know your qualifications and your target client. You are much more likely to get referrals if you state who you really help. That way people you meet will remember you. They'll realize that their brother Bob is an engineer and could use a financial advisor. Or their sister Sally is a college professor and might be interested in Ted's service.

What Benefit is Ted providing? WEALTH!! STABILITY!! Wealth is a "want" and stability is a "need". Don't forget to speak to wants and needs.

So, in putting together your new 30 second commercial, what is it you truly offer? What is the pain you are helping your clients avoid?

Click here to work through an exercise I wrote about how to Write Your 30 Second Commercial

Grow Your Business and Prosper!
Suzanne Muusers
Business Coach for Entrepreneurs and Financial Advisors
http://www.prosperitycoaching.biz/

The Power of Your Subconscious Mind – Dr. Joseph Murphy - Book Review

The New Year has arrived and it's time we entrepreneurs moved forward with a new tactic utilizing the subconscious mind!! If you have never heard of this book, it is an amazing read. So I urge entrepreneurs everywhere to run right out and buy it. A client recommended it to me quite some time ago and while it lay on my bookshelf for some time, the timing was perfect for me to finish reading it.

According to the book jacket, this book is a classic and I can see why. Written in 1963 by Dr. Joseph Murphy, the information is pre "The Secret", and pre "Ask and it is Given." Nonetheless, this book has reminded me that the mind is very powerful and often the key to our success.

Many of us are apt to let negative thoughts come into our minds and then we are surprised when things don't go the way we want them to. If we are able to replace the negative thoughts with positive statements or images, we have the power to change our lives in big and small ways. Murphy states "Never finish a negative statement. Reverse it immediately and wonders will happen in your life."

This reminds me of a client who was in the habit of making negative statements about herself and others. Her negativity got in the way of her success although she was initially not aware of it. I asked her to become more aware of her speech and to pinch herself each time she said something negative. I asked her to get in the habit of only making positive statements. Within two months she had completely changed her attitude and success followed her every move from that time forward.

Murphy asserts that there are two types of people: those who KNOW they are born to succeed and those who are full of fear and destined for failure. After reading this book it's your choice as to which group you belong to…

Murphy gives the analogy of a garden and the mind. "You are the gardener. You are planting seeds of thought in your subconscious mind all day long. Much of the time you are not even aware of doing so, because the seeds are based on your habitual thinking. As you sow in your subconscious mind, so shall you reap in your body and environment."

My intention with this post is not to give a detailed review of the book. Just go out and buy it. You'll be amazed at what you can train your mind to do.

Grow Your Business and Prosper!
Suzanne Muusers
Business Coach for Entrepreneurs and Financial Advisors

http://www.prosperitycoaching.biz/

Business Goals and New Year's Resolutions – WHO do you want to BE in 2008?

I've written about New Year's Resolutions in a recent post and here we are almost to the end of 2007. Have you thought about your business and where you want to take it? I know exactly where I'm going because I just updated my business plan.

Here are a few of the questions I asked myself while working on my business plan:

What do I want to do differently in 2008?
This year I want to do more writing about things I'm passionate about. Being an entrepreneur in the business world; characteristics of successful business owners; the benefits of a positive attitude. I also want more time for reading. I have a stack of books with topics that range from internet marketing to learning to train our brains to be more efficient. I just need to carve out time.

What do I want to delegate?
I definitely want to do less administration. Less bookkeeping and reconciliations. Oddly enough I'm fairly good at accounting. This is all thanks to my best friend Laura Klump who taught me how to keep a perfect set of books. I will be delegating the PR side of my business especially since I'm not good at Public Relations. I can help my clients promote themselves any old day, but I don't seem to be great at it for my own business. I don't want to delegate marketing because I LOVE IT! My mantra is: Keep doing what you're good at and delegate the rest.

WHO do I want to BE a year from now?
I want to be a wiser and better-rounded person. For the past 3 years I've had my head down while building this coaching business and now that I have a smoothly running machine I can take my foot off the accelerator and ease up a bit. This means I can devote more time to BEING a better friend, sister, auntie, wife, and community resident.

What exciting vacations do I want for 2008?
I don't know about exciting, but I want to go to Rocky Point Mexico at least a few times this year. There's nothing better than staying in a house on the beach with close friends and cooking and drinking wine on the patio while watching the wildlife go by. While I love the fancy resorts, I also crave simplicity and authentic relationships. That's what going to Rocky Point gives me - Time, space, great seafood, sand, ocean, and sunsets.

Take some time in the next few days to do some business planning and thinking about WHO you want to BE in 2008.

Grow Your Business and Prosper!
Suzanne Muusers
Business Coach for Entrepreneurs and Financial Advisors
http://www.prosperitycoaching.biz/

The 4-Hour Workweek – Tim Ferriss - Book Review

This book review is about The 4-Hour Workweek, written by Tim Ferriss, a self-described serial-entrepreneur, scuba diver, tango dancer, and world traveler. The book is about how to live a meaningful lifestyle without delaying retirement and without wasting your life. This book has many "coach-like" tools and techniques which leads me to believe that Mr. Ferriss has at one time had a business or life coach who guided him in developing these principles.

As entrepreneurs we often dream about freedom – freedom to live a life of our own choosing, freedom to travel internationally to exotic locations, and freedom to create our own schedules.

Why should we wait unit age 65 to live the life we want? Why should we slave year after year to make someone else’s dreams come true when we can take control of our lives and live the dream now?

Ferriss breaks people down into two groups: the Deferrers and the New Rich. The Deferrers (D) work like the devil 80 hours a week to make the money to finance a highbrow lifestyle. They slave, save, and then retire. The New Rich (NR) design their business to finance a more meaningful lifestyle that includes travel, hobbies, and outsourcing.

What I got out of this book:

Does your Life have a Purpose? - What do you stand for? Are you working just to work? Are you buying new and better “things” but feel empty inside? Does your life have meaning? What are you contributing to the world? Figure out why you are on this planet and vow to live a life of meaning by contributing something of value to this world.

Create a Virtual Business and Delegate – create a company not a one person shop! Have others do the work for you. You’re a CPA that focuses on tax return preparation. A client is looking for someone to do their monthly accounting. Take this client and delegate or farm out the business. Put procedures in place for how your clients will be handled. Ferriss goes into detail about hiring Virtual Assistants (VA) to do much of your "busy" work for you so that you can concentrate on the important details of running a business.

Simplicity and Space – Did you buy a bigger house to hold all your possessions? Are your closets full of stuff you rarely use? What big-boy toys do you have but rarely use? Create space in your life to live. Clean out the clutter that prevents you from living a life of meaning.

Get Rid of Your Unprofitable Clients – when we've reached a certain level of success we can muster the courage to pick our clients based upon certain parameters, namely how much we enjoy working with them and how profitable they are. Some entrepreneurs chose to refer the unprofitable clients to someone starting out in the business, usually for a referral fee. The profitable clients are retained and used to grow the business.

Time Management – one of the major points of this book is how much time we waste by trying to "stay busy" rather than being "productive". Email is now our enemy rather than a tool to help us manage our business effectively. Ferriss points out that he checks his email only once per week. I'm not sure how easy this would be for the majority of entrepreneurs. I am certainly aware of how email is a time waster. I personally don't check or answer email on the weekends. I use that time to live my life. How often have you been "busy" the entire day, but when you look back you can't quite put your finger on what you actually got done?

Focus on Your Strengths, not Your Weaknesses – as a business coach for entrepreneurs, I support this notion wholeheartedly. All too often I hear about business owners who are trying to "fix" the things they're not good at. I'd rather see us delegate weaknesses, and do what we're REALLY good at – and do it well.

Conclusion:
The book also goes into depth about how to create a business that runs on Autopilot (MBA - management by absence) based on product creation and internet sales. Of course, automation is the key!!!

While I think this is an extremely beneficial book for entrepreneurs and small business owners, I also believe it proposes some out of the box solutions to common problems that will take some getting used to. However, I believe it will take some radical changes to "fix" our overly complicated, revenue-driven, valueless lifestyles.

This book is a good read and I recommend it for all entrepreneurs seeking a better quality of life.


Grow Your Business and Prosper!
Suzanne Muusers
Business Coach for Entrepreneurs and Financial Advisors

http://www.prosperitycoaching.biz/

Are you starting a business? Don't forget your SWOT Analysis!

I seem to be running into a lot of people in the process of starting a business. I've met a start-up technology entrepreneur, a pet sitting/groomer entrepreneur, and a brand new CPA, all during the past week. One thing they have in common is a burning desire for FREEDOM through owning their own business.

Several themes developed in my conversations with these aspiring entrepreneurs. What did they need to do to be successful each of them asked? What roadblocks would they possibly run into? What key activity do they need to perform consistently?

First of all, many entrepreneurs fail to do adequate research into their business idea. Is there actually a need for their product or service in the geographic area they have chosen? Who is the competition? Who are they competing against and what do they need to work on to improve their chances of success?

One often-overlooked way to accurately determine if you're on the right track is to perform a SWOT Analysis. Creating a SWOT will help you determine your market position.

1. What are the company’s STRENGTHS?

What unique advantages does your company have?
What do customers rave about?
What unique resources do you have access to?
What do others see as your strengths?

2. What are the company’s WEAKNESSES?

What could you improve?
What should you avoid?
What do others see as your weaknesses?
What do customers complain about the most?

3. What are the company’s greatest OPPORTUNITIES?

What opportunities are you not taking advantage of? Go on, admit you have opportunities you haven't taken advantage of. Most of my clients learn to leverage opportunities they were either too afraid to pursue or were consciously unaware of. This is one of the greatest keys to success.
What trends could you leverage?
How can you turn your weaknesses into opportunities?

4. What are the company’s greatest THREATS?

What trends could harm you? Is there a technology or new service that could come along and wipe you out?
What obstacles do you face?
What is your competition doing?
Are the required specifications for your job, products or services changing?
Do you have bad debt or cash-flow problems?
Could any of your weaknesses seriously threaten your business?

A SWOT Analysis is not only key for start-ups but for established businesses that haven't taken a good look at their competitive position lately. Could you benefit from this exercise?

Grow Your Business and Prosper!
Suzanne Muusers
Business Coach for Entrepreneurs and Financial Advisors
http://www.prosperitycoaching.biz/

Entrepreneurial Vision - What's Yours?

I attended the 2nd Annual Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference in Phoenix Thursday November 8th, 2007. I LOVE being in the company of business owners with entrepreneurial minds!! Conferences like this are very motivating and can reignite the passion for why we started our business in the first place.

Pat Sullivan, former ACT CEO, opened the conference with a fantastic talk about how to raise money for a start up venture. He also spoke about having great entrepreneurial vision. In fact, it seemed that many of the break out session panelists spoke about vision.

I loved the lunch keynote speaker Dan Morrison's talk about Lessons Learned and how there's no set path or set of rules on how to be successful with your business. He also talked about the difference between an Entrepreneurial CEO and an Outside CEO. No one but the Entrepreneurial CEO truly understands the Company Vision.

It's surprising to me that while most of the conference speakers included something about the importance of Entrepreneurial Vison in their talks, 90% of my clients don't have a vision when they start working with me.

Here are 3 Easy Steps to Creating a Vision:

1. Craft your Company Values Statement. What is important to the organization? Have everyone in your company list values. Examples: Integrity, safety, beneficial client relationships, quality work, consistent follow-up, open lines of communication, cutting edge technology, work-life balance, and personal excellence. Your Values Statement should start out something like: As a company and as individuals we value:

2. Ask three to four people in your organization to come up with a Vision Statement based on your values. Get them to complete the following sentence: It is five years from today, where are we? What are we doing? Who are we serving? What’s different about the company?

3. Take the Vision Statement, break into small groups of three to five and brainstorm to perfect the ideas it contains. Use the questions above to guide you. All groups should share their ideas to finalize the Vision.

Staying Power
Once you’ve come up with a Vision Statement, don’t put it away in a drawer to be forgotten. Use your Vision in your company marketing materials, your website, and in your Human Resources office so that it is always present in the company culture.

Grow Your Business and Prosper!

Suzanne Muusers

Business Coach for Entrepreneurs and Financial Advisors

http://www.prosperitycoaching.biz/