Entries from October 2007
October 31, 2007
This week Coach Sandra Martini offers concrete, effective ways to get the word out about our businesses….
“Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.”
– Napoleon Hill
When starting out in business, many small business owners want to get everything *right*. They spend hours upon hours designing a logo, picking letterhead and envelopes and focusing on their brand.
Is this important? ABSOLUTELY!
Is this *the most* important thing to be doing immediately? Absolutely NOT!
The most important thing you can do for your new business (or business-not-bringing-in-enough-income) is to get the word out. You want to tell everyone you know (and ask them to tell everyone THEY know) what you do.
In order to do that, YOU need to know what you do (yes, I’m serious here!).
Please tell me more! »
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October 28, 2007
For this week’s round-up of interesting links, I chose to highlight a few of the business plan competitions listed on the blog that have deadlines that are drawing near.
The Great Lakes Entrepreneur’s Quest (GLEQ) Competition
How Much: $25,000.00
The deadline to register: October 31, 2007
Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award
How Much: $25,000+
The deadline to submit manuscript: November 5, 2007
Avon’s Hello Tomorrow Fund.
How Much: $5,000 seed money to start a program, business or project that will empower women.
The deadline to apply: December 17, 2007
The Make Your Dreams Come True with Mirassou business plan competition
How Much: $50,000 in seed money
The deadline to apply: December 15, 2007
October 27, 2007
A few years ago while attending a seminar for small business owners in New York City, one of the speakers asked, ” How many of you in this room have your own business?” Naturally every hand in the audience shot up. Next he asked, “how many of you, would have money coming in from your business if you were to get ill tomorrow or even as you sit here listening to me?”
Almost every hand went down. He said, “Well people, all of you have made a major mistake. You all created self employment for yourselves which is very different from being an entrepreneur creating a profitable business.”
That gave me pause. He went on to explain that as long as you are still in a situation where no work = no income, you are self-employed. In the next guest post, What Have You Created for Yourself?, business coach Sandra Martini explains the 5W’s you should be asking yourself to avoid falling into the trap of the self-employed. In another post, I’ll touch on incorporating passive sources of income in your game plan for maximum success as a business owner.
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Posted in Food for Thought, start up advice 4 Comments »
October 27, 2007
Do you remember the day you worked for a company — large or small, it doesn’t matter — and dreamed of owning your own business?
“I will be *the boss*”, you thought.
“I will come and go as I please and make my own hours”, you thought.
“I will take vacations whenever I want”, you thought.
“I will have plenty of money to do what I want”, you thought.
And then you started your own business.
My, my how things have changed.
Please tell me more! »
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Posted in Food for Thought, Entrepreneurship, start up advice 4 Comments »
October 24, 2007
Coach Sandra Martini offers her advice on creating an easy to follow marketing game plan….
It’s Monday and you get an email indicating that writing an ezine is THE way to get new clients. You drop everything and start working on an email newsletter.
It’s Tuesday and your friend calls and says that he heard the best way to get publicity is pay-per-click. You drop everything and sign up for a Google Adwords account.
It’s Wednesday and you heard that someone made a million dollars selling info products. Everything else waits while you work on your first million dollar product.
I once had a client who would tell me he figured out how to “fix” his business and what he needed to do to succeed. Unfortunately, he did this DAILY. Each day he had a new marketing strategy that he would drop everything else to implement. It was exhausting as well as counterproductive.
Does this sound familiar? You have no real plan for your marketing strategy and so you jump from one idea to another based on what you hear or read is the best or quickest way to get more clients and increase sales.
It’s time to get off the merry-go-round.
Please tell me more! »
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Posted in Food for Thought, marketing materials 1 Comment »
