Establishing Cash Flow in Business

Establishing Cash Flow in Business

Whenever we are starting a new business or venture, cash flow is the most critical element. As Paul Maguire says, it’s oxygen for your business. That means planning your month, quarter and years promotions and activities are vitals and required for your success.

To help you plan for the close of the year, I put together a quarter branded plan outlined with examples of how I manage my sales cycles to keep the cash flow in business going. 

For Better Cash Flow in Business Think About Your Entire Quarter

It is important to understand your budgeting needs for the entire quarter. This will allow you to break down your financial needs for each month and see how they fit together. If you are going to be successful in your business, you need to know what your financial commitments are.

You Need a Budget

If ever there was a need for a budget, it is when you are a business owner. Without an understanding of your financial obligations, you can get into deep trouble real quick. What if you have a big bill that you need to pay in the second month of the quarter? How are you going to pay the bill if you haven’t earned enough in sales?

That is why having a quarter branding plan is essential.

What is a Quarterly Branding Plan?

A quarterly branding plan allows you to map out exactly what you need to do to bring in the earnings necessary to cover both your personal and business expenses. You will develop very specific action plans that help you know what has to be done every day in order to reach your goals.

Download this Quarter Branded Plan example for free.

Quarter Branded Plan

In this document, I give you a real life scenario of how Brian and I would structure our quarter to host an event. In order to get interested people to the event, we will launch a 4 week workshop and host weekly calls to bring in new members to our Freedom-preneur academy.

What is the Freedom-preneur Academy?

Over the last few years, we have realized that there is a major hole in the online marketing industry. If you do enough searching around and digging, you will find all of the information you need to build a successful business. The problem is, many people run out of time and funds long before they find all of that information.

We created the Freedom-preneur Academy to house all of that valuable information you need to be successful. When you sign up to join our academy, you will have access to training videos and worksheets that will help you know exactly what you need to do.

Not only do we offer the video training courses, but you can also plug into the online community of other Freedom-preneurs that are in the academy. These men and women bring so many skills and knowledge to the table.

Establishing Sales Funnels and Developing a Lead Magnet

If you are going to effectively establish cash flow in your business, then you have to understand sales funnels. Developing the right lead magnet is where you need to start. A lead magnet is a free product, like an ebook, that will grab the attention of your target audience.

Download this free PDF that will lead you through developing an effective lead magnet.

Creating Lead Magnets With Links

Source: Cash flow in business plan

How To Create A Sexy Tagline For Your Brand

How To Create A Sexy Tagline For Your Brand

As I wrote last week in 10 Tips for Startups and Small Businesses on Naming Your Company, coming up with a great company name for your new small business or startup can be challenging and time consuming. Coming up with a memorable  Sexy tagline for your brand can present an even greater challenge.

A sexy tagline is supposed to communicate to your customers and potential customers what sets you apart from your competition and also your brand’s focus. I call it your USB ( Unstoppable Sexy Brand)  If you’d like some additional background on branding, you might want to read Branding Secrets  andUnstoppable Branding Secrets for Sexy Brands

You’ve probably seen and heard some of the most influential tag lines of the past 50 years:

Got milk? (California Milk Processor Board) – 1993

Just do it (Nike) – 1988

Think different (Apple) – 1998

The ultimate driving machine (BMW) – 1975

Why did those taglines capture the attention of a wide audience and how did each become so memorable? Money provides a partial answer. Each of the companies/organizations that promoted one of the above taglines spent huge sums of money establishing their brand – and the tagline.  But you don’t have to spend a lot of money to create your own personal tagline, you just have to get creative.

Here is how to create your “Sexy” Brands Tagline.

1. Make it unique. Unsuccessful taglines often are too generic. If your competitor can use your tagline and it would still work well for them – you should keep working on the tagline until you find something that only you can uniquely use. “Use something that relates you you and only you, like a part of your name or slogan, like Rhonda Swan’s  “Unstoppable Sexy Branded Formula”  See how I use Unstoppable ? This identifies my tagline to me and only me. Think about your brand what word could express the transformation you offer ? Can it fit into your tagline?

2. Make it simple. You wouldn’t want to have a complicated company name, so why would you create a complicated tagline? A good way to test for simplicity is to ask your friends, family and strangers whether they understand what your company does after they see or hear your tagline.

3. Make it concise. The best taglines explain what your company does and are short. Worry less initially about how the tagline sounds and focus first on a rough statement – you can always tweak until you get it just right. Aim for no more than five world. Five words are easier to remember than 20 words.  No more than 7 words, otherwise it becomes a mini message.

Some good examples: “Email marketing software for designers and their clients” (CampaignMonitor), “A Better Way To Work.” (37signals) and “The World’s Largest Junk Removal Service” (1-800-Got-Junk?)

4. Make it timeless. As tempting as hip taglines are, they will quickly become dated. There’s a reason each of the above taglines from Nike, Apple, and BMW has survived the test of time – they’re simple and timeless.

5. Keep it consistent. One mistake companies make is to regularly change their taglines because they become tired of their current taglines and think that their customers and potential customers also have become tired of that tagline. This is a mistake and can lead to confusion. If your tagline works – even if you think it’s boring – stick with it if it’s working well for you.

6. Keep the focus on your audience, not on your company.The most memorable taglines are about your customers, not about your company. If you focus your tagline on your company, your customers will wonder how it relates to them. On the other hand, by placing the focus on your customers – you’ll create a stronger brand association. Nike’s “Just do it” and Apple’s “Think Different” are great examples of placing the focus on the customers and potential customers. One common mistake companies make is to make promises in their taglines (which put the focus on the company). Don’t make promises – communicate benefits instead.

7. Keep it relevant to your company’s audience. The memorable taglines above are sexy but not very descriptive. They’re memorable in part because each company/organization spent huge sums of money marketing and used those taglines in their marketing. Since you probably don’t have access to the same marketing budgets, your goal should be different.  You should use your tagline to identify what you do and to identify the benefit to your customers.

8. Make sure it matches your other branding. Many entrepreneurs and small businesses think that a logo IS the company’s brand. It’s not. A logo is part of what defines a brand. A tagline, like a logo, helps to define your brand. Make sure that the style, voice, and other elements of your tagline match the style, voice and other elements of your logo design. Because your tagline will be part of your overall branding, you’ll want the tagline to reflect your company’s personality.

9. Keep it positive. There’s a huge body of research showing that negative statements generally don’t sell very well. Keep your tagline positive and focus on benefits.

10. Inject appropriate personality. Insurance companies speak with a different voice than Internet companies. That’s OK. Keep in mind your company’s voice and personality, and make sure that the tagline reflects that voice and personality, so if you are light and fun use words that will represent your personality.

Source: Personal Branding

How To Create Killer Content That Keeps On Giving & Leverage Facebook Offers

How To Create Killer Content That Keeps On Giving & Leverage Facebook Offers

 “Content marketing is the only marketing left.” Seth Godin.

If you own any type of professional business nowadays you’ll know that, in terms of marketing, the world has changed dramatically. The once tried and tested activities for getting client attention just don’t work now like they once did.

Advertising don’t get enough response to justify the considerable costs.

Today, effective marketing is all about writing high quality content and sharing this across the web. By quality content we don’t just mean well-written or artfully produced information. By quality content we mean information that is first and foremost of real value to your particular client base.

Educate your clients/customers, show them the best practice, tell them what to watch out for, provide them with valuable tips on how to achieve success, demonstrate how you were able to help others in their shoes; answer their problems, open their eyes.

Creating and distributing this kind of relevant, valuable and compelling information will help you turn prospects into buyers and eventually into long-term fans.

Create the type of information that your buyers actually want to consume. Having a valuable content as a marketing strategy is a win-win for your company and its customers — your potential clients get the information they need from you and you get to demonstrate your expertise and usefulness.

Valuable content will help you sell. It helps your ideal clients locate you and makes it easier for them to buy from you. It’s an opportunity to build up your company as the “go to” place to turn to when the time comes to buy.

A Different Approach to Communication

If you want to harvest the rewards that valuable content brings, you have to start communicating differently. There are different rules of engagement here. The approach to valuable content is not about continuing to holler about how amazing your firm is as we all did in the past. Rethink what you learned about sales and marketing messages.

Your position should be not “look how great we are” (as in a traditional brochure) but “look how useful we are – we have the answers to your problems.”

This approach is truly customer-centred. Create content that is genuinely useful to your customers. Make yourself indispensable.

It takes Effort To Be Valuable

Consistently delivering and creating this type of information takes effort. What you need to do is to build a deep understanding of the needs of your target client base and of where and how you add value. Furthermore, it also takes time and skill.

Valuable content may not be easy to produce but it is an essential tool if you are aiming to grow and sustain a successful business in today’s web-driven world.

Source: Content Marketing Strategy

Color Psychology and What it Has to Do With Branding

Color Psychology and What it Has to Do With Branding

Color is extremely important in branding your business. When someone looks at a logo, the color is the foremost thing that they remember. In fact, according to Color Matters, 80 percent of visual information that we take in is related to color.

Why Color Matters

According to the research that was conducted by the secretariat of the Seoul International Color Expo, they found that-

• 92.6% of consumers say that visual factors influenced their purchase decision
• 5.6% said that touching the product had influence on their decision
• 0.9% said that smell had anything to do with their decision

They determined that anywhere between 62% and 90% of purchases are made based on color alone.

Branding Identity

The color that you chose has everything to do with your brand identity. Color increases brand recognition by up to 80%.

Many brands have sets of colors trademarked for protection against other brands in the same market. For instance, Coca-Cola has its iconic red and white scheme protected. Lots of others have single shades of color trademarked too, like John Deere, McDonalds and Starbucks.

These brands try to associate themselves with their color at a fundamental level. To achieve that sort of recognition, brands have to peg their signature color to nearly everything—marketing, packaging, uniforms, store decor and more.

So when you hear one of these brands’ names, it should be easy to think of its color. What about your brand color or imaging?

Can you be identified over anyone else ? This is what all marketers and personal brands should strive for. To create a USP (Unstoppable Sexy Positioning) for your brand that your customers recognize throughout your whole sales process.

Increase Engagement

Ads that have color are read up to 42% more than the same content in black and white. It also can improve the ability for your audience to read and comprehend your content. Taking learning styles into account when building ads is highly important. If you have written something or presented it in a way that they cannot understand, you are wasting your time.

Color Psychology

Take a peep below at the psychology of color when developing your brand.

Red- Energy, Passion, and Boldness

Orange- Health, Wealth, and Youthfulness

Yellow- Joy, Energy, and Warmth

Green- Growth, Balance and Well Being

Blue- Peace, Confidence, and Serenity

Purple- Royalty, Luxury, and Success

What Colors and Styles You Wear Is Part Of Your Branding

During the first Media and the City event, we brought in Brian Cook. He’s a stylist with many prestigious clients. He gave us many tips about what to wear on camera to represent our brands well. Colors had a lot to do with his suggestions.

Brian estimates that it takes 1/10 of a second for a person to assess your competence and trustworthiness. The colors and styles you are wearing is a big part of your message whether you realize it or not.

Implementing color psychology into your wardrobe is an important part of your branding strategy. This is important to think about when you are creating promotional materials and videos.

Color is one part of your branding strategy. If you are interested in learning more about becoming fully branded from start to finish, be sure to check out the Freedom-preneur Academy.

Source: Become an authority

How to Build a Valuable Business Team

How to Build a Valuable Business Team

When you’re an entrepreneur with the goal of building a successful company, it’s incredibly important to put together a solid team. Without hardworking, educated, dependable employees and partners, your company will flounder and never achieve the success you’ve hoped for.

Let’s assume that you need a great team to support you and your business ideas. How do you actually build that team?

Tips for Putting Together Your Business Team

Team members are incredibly important for your business development. As time goes by and your company is growing, you will need more and more people to take over tasks like finance, content, and administration writing.

Here are a few tips I’ve learned over the years about developing and motivating a great team:

1. Hire highly-skilled professionals.

You’ll just cost yourself more time and money in the long run if you’re not careful during the hiring process. Training and motivating unqualified team members is a waste of your resources, so don’t just hire the first person that applies.

2. Connect with team members regularly.

Even the best employees and consultants need some feedback, and to touch base with their leaders from time to time. The best way to keep everyone on the same page is to meet regularly, whether virtually or in person.

3. Instigate a coaching and develop program.

In most companies regardless of the size and achievements, the success of every consultant depends on the cultivation of a great team. Since the income of a consultant is heavily dependent on the subsequent sales of his or her recruits, coaching is a very important part of the team ethos. Take the time to create an in-depth, easy-to-understand program that teaches your recruits everything they need to know about your business and your plans for the future.

4. Present webinars.

A webinar is a simple way to connect with your team members. Not only can webinars be recorded ahead of time and broadcasted later, but it can save a lot of time and money when it comes to getting team members together to discuss issues. Most companies host at least one webinar a month.

5. Create Facebook community groups.

Facebook groups are the ideal place for team members to meet casually and discuss anything from procedural issues to customer relationships. These discussions can happen slowly over the day or week, and everyone can benefit from seeing the conversion unfold.

At the end of the day, it’s up to each team member to be productive. Provide all the relevant tools and support, and the people who truly believe in you and your company will rise to the top.

Every Great Team Needs Direction

Staying connected with your team is the most important thing to remember. If you want to take your business to the next level by building a dedicated team, you have to offer a great deal of support to your staff and partners.

And most importantly, if you want to take your business to the next level by building a dedicated team, you have to offer a great deal of support to your staff and partners.

Source: Business Team Building Events

New Entrepreneurs: Don’t Make This Mistake!

New Entrepreneurs: Don’t Make This Mistake!

“What is the number one mistake that new entrepreneurs make when starting a business?”

Because it gives me a chance to talk about something I see almost every new business owner doing wrong, I love this question. Now, let’s answer this question.

Productivity Versus Busywork

The answer is inaction.

The biggest mistake new entrepreneurs make is to confuse movement for action. I see too many people wasting their time on the latter.

A study conducted by the University of California, Irvine revealed that employees actually feel happiest while engaged in busywork, or what the researchers refer to as “rote work.”

You need to reconsider how to manage your time because you’re mistaking being busy for being productive if this sounds like you. Watching more training doesn’t move your business forward.

The leader of the study, Dr. Gloria Mark, explains: 
” With rote work, you get a feeling of accomplishment, but you haven’t exerted a lot of mental activity. It gives you a feeling of fulfilment, but there’s not a single frustration or stress.”

You Won’t Make Money until You Start Selling
Some entrepreneurs seem almost scared to start their businesses, as if the fear of failure has trapped them in their desk chairs and forced them to buy more and more educational products instead of setting up a website or putting together an email list.

Because they are action-oriented, I’ve seen people that are brand new to this industry go out and make a lot of money simply. If you want to be successful, that’s exactly what you need to do, too.

Do Something Productive Every Day
I’m talking about tasks you complete that can directly make you money when I talk about productive activities. Things like creating capture pages, sending sales emails, and posting ads.

Don’t just sit there learning; take the time to use that knowledge to start your business. Figure out how to brand yourself, how to reach your niche market, and then get it done. You won’t start making money until you do!

It’s so much more valuable to take action, even when you make mistakes! Those mistakes teach how to fine tune your business and make it a success. I know this from my own experience.

The biggest mistake new entrepreneurs make is to confuse movement for action. That discovery makes sense to me, because time and time again I see new consultants getting stuck in training mode– that’s when they watch educational video after video without actually putting any of that knowledge into practice. Those mistakes teach how to fine tune your business and make it a success. And I started making a lot of mistakes.

When I started in the internet marketing industry, my main problem was getting traffic. And I started making a lot of mistakes.

That discovery makes sense to me, because time and time again I see new consultants getting stuck in training mode– that’s when they watch educational video after video without actually putting any of that knowledge into practice. Why? It’s easy to sit back and be educated, while it’s much more stressful to take your business and your future into your own hands with productive actions.

You won’t start making money until you do!

Source: Biggest Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make

Successful Online Marketers Eat Frogs

Successful Online Marketers Eat Frogs

Why do we generally decline to eat the frog first thing in the morning, or at any time during the day? It’s because these major tasks usually involve things that are totally foreign to us so we feel there won’t be much satisfaction in the short term.

Frogs Top to Bottom.

People at all levels of businesses– newbies to veterans– have their frogs and we all find ways to avoid them.

What is the one thing you could do right now, today, that would move your business along? What could get you closer to being in business, get you that next client, create future income?

I first heard the saying from Brian Tracy, the personal development expert and sales trainer; in his book Eat That Frog! He uses it as a colorful way to say, “Stop procrastinating.”.

Are You Really Hungry?

” Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”.

He mingled among France’s upper classes, Chamfort supported the French Revolution. His use of the “frog” statement was aimed at his disgust with French high society.

More specifically, “eating the frog,” means tackling the biggest or most important task( s) that will move your business forward.

If you really want to be in business– if you’re really hungry– you’ve got to eat the frogs.

This humorous saying has been credited to 17th century American author Mark Twain (though someone on my staff has pointed out to me that there is no evidence that Twain ever said or wrote it; it’s a translation of a statement documented as having been written by a 17th century French humorist named Nicholas Chamfort, who was quoting an associate known as “Mr. de Lassay”).

How do I stop wasting time and just get on with it?

If you can motivate yourself to take on and complete the things you’ve been putting off– usually, they are big, meaningful things that would move your business forward– you will find yourself actually in business.

For people who are further along and do have an audience, the method is to announce your “frog” in an email, on social media, or both. It’s a good idea to put some cash up as well, to ensure you really do deliver. Declare that the penalty for failing to deliver is some amount of cash that you really can’t afford to lose. Either deliver and reclaim your cash or fail to deliver on time and lose it.

For someone just starting out, who does not yet have a list of customers and leads, you would make yourself accountable to a friend or family member.

Final Thought.

Use self-imposed accountability if motivation is hard to summon. The frog will seem palatable in comparison if you make the deadline short enough and the penalty stiff enough.

Source: Successful Online Marketing Strategies

You Need a Support Team to Grow Your Business

You Need a Support Team to Grow Your Business

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting two very special people in my life and business. For the last 10 years I’ve worn many hats in my business. From trainer to marketer- product developer- copy writer- editor-customer service and everything in between. I outsourced a little bit but mostly handled everything myself.

You see, I thought If I didn’t do it all myself, I wouldn’t be a good business owner or example to my clients or students.

Being a Good Business Owner Doesn’t Mean Doing it All Yourself

Boy was I wrong about the way I was handling my business. The whole reason behind leaving my job and starting my business was to travel and be with my daughter. As I got busier, that freedom started to drift.

The time I wanted to get back from my corporate job was slowly replaced with more “stuff” working in my business, not on it. What good was doing myself, Brian, or Hanalei to allow “stuff” to take all of my attention. That is not the Freedom-preneur life- it’s the corporate life- the one I left behind.

Outsourcing is The Answer to Growing Your Business

As much as I loved the 4 Hour Work Week idea of outsourcing, I still couldn’t give away the control or trust that someone else could do as good of a job as me. That is a misguided thought for sure. No one will do the job the same way I will do it, but that doesn’t mean they won’t do an incredible job.

The Outsourcing Company I Trust

Earlier this year, I was introduced to Jenny Jordan whose company, Need a VAspecializes in creating space for busy entrepreneurs. They offer outsourcing solutions and build teams for organizations to become more efficient.

My world shifted almost immediately.

I now work on my business not IN my business. I now spend my time with my family and my clients and not spend my time on organizing my day but building and growing my business.

I had the pleasure of meeting my assistant Larcie Martinez Tulao for the first time in person, and our “Sexy Blog Artist” Mark Ryan Holanda. These two are the heart and soul of my organization, they keep me organized through the day and take care of our clients needs. There is a huge amazing team behind them that is a full support system that I now cannot live without.

What I’ve Learned From Outsourcing

There are several things that I have learned from outsourcing and the biggest thing is that developing a team has helped me grow in ways I couldn’t have imagined. Now that I allow people that are specialists in their areas handle different aspects of running the Unstoppable Family, I’m able to hone in more on my own specialty.

With the time I’ve regained, I can help more people. I’m even better now at what I do than I have ever been before.

The moment I brought on a team of others to help was the moment I was able to meet the needs of my clients. That is what it is all about- helping others reach their business goals.

Source: How To Build A Management Team