Free MP3 - The Art of Networking & Referrals

Due to popular demand, I am making the MP3 recording and transcript of The Art of Networking and Referrals available for free.

Are you looking for more customers?

One of the most powerful ways to get your needs met and help others at the same time is through word-of-mouth referrals and networking with others.

In this teleclass recording, I share and techniques for effective networking, including ideas for a face-to-face and online referrals. Walk away with a plan and some great resources!

Get your free copy here:

www.PassionForBusiness.com

(Enjoy!)

SEO Rap: Just When You Think You've Seen It All

Once in a while, a real Original comes into the world. Welcome to The SEO Rap!

Book Review: Bounce!

Failure. No one likes to talk about it. And when we do talk about it, we like to feel there is some deeper meaning or learning in every business failure we have. I suppose it helps us to feel that we didn't go through a bad time in vain.

Barry Moltz's new book, Bounce!, talks about failure in a different way. Gone are the platitude, replaced by the practical notion that failure is part of every growing business, neither to be praised as a "learning experience" nor to be bashed as something to be ashamed of.

Instead Motlz sees failure as a way to build strength and confidence. Failure isn't the opposite of success, it's a step along the path to success. So knowing and expecting some level of failure allows you to take more risks because you learn resiliency along the way...not from your successes, but from your failures. Once you develop resiliency, you have the confidence to take even more risks and try even more big ideas because you know you can bounce back from them if they don't go well.

And Moltz should know: he's had his fair share of failures before he rose to his current level of success, and he talks about them proudly and without shame. Bravo!

Share Your Thoughts!

I'd love you to share your thoughts about the way you like to learn.

It's a short 3-question survey. Share your thoughts today, click here to take my "How Do You Like To Learn?" survey.

Thanks! I'll tally up the results and share them in the next newsletter.

Self-Employment: The Hardest Way to Make Easy Money

I heard this comment at a National Speaker's Association meeting last month: "Being your own boss is the hardest way to make easy money." Boy, isn't that the truth!

So many people I speak with dream of becoming self employed and starting their own small business. Don't get me wrong: being self employed is the best lifestyle I know. It has a huge range of rewards, from flexibility to independence to self-responsibility. I'm completely in love with being self employed and wouldn't exchange it for a corporate job for a million dollars! (Okay, truthfully, if you want to offer me a million dollars a year in salary, I'm willing to entertain a discussion.)

But self employment is hard work, plain and simple. After carefully studying and working with people who start their own businesses, my best estimate is that it takes at least a year to make a serious profit, and often it's more like two years. I have yet to see a "quick fix" for small business marketing that will land a lot of cash in your pocket in 30 days.

If your business structure and administrative process are not firmly in place, you'll crash and burn eventually. If your business strategy and plan are not fine-tuned, you'll spend an extraordinary amount of time running in circles trying to find the right customer and the right product or service to sell them.

So why do people look for (and purchase) products and services that promise a quick fix to their ailing small business? In the question lays the answer: they want a quick fix to the pain. Don't we all?

Running your own small business is a marathon, not a sprint. Stop trying to sprint your way to your first million without a firm foundation under you. Remember, marathoners train all year long for just one marathon; they don't wait until the month before to begin preparing.

Things to consider:

1. Make sure you have the personality to be self employed.
2. Make sure you have enough money to finance your dreams, and a good financial plan that tells you when you'll actually start making a profit.
3. Invest money and time in sound, effective marketing strategies and do them every month, rain or shine.
4. Have a written business plan and a business strategy, even if it's only three pages long.
5. Test your marketing ideas, your product ideas and your service ideas to make sure you've got everything on target.
6. And finally, have a marathoner's attitude: the finish line does exist, just over the next hill. Believe that you will make it to the finish line, as long as you keep putting one foot in front of the other and maintain a positive attitude.

Marketing To Women class

What's more important?

1. Learning about how women buy

2. The product or service you are selling

(Hint: the answer is #1.)

In order to grow your business, you must understand women's lifestyles and what are their specific wants, needs and desires.

You will learn:

• What women buy -- and why

• The number 1 thing you must do in your marketing to women

• The 10 (HUGE) mistakes we make when marketing to women

• The keys to creating a woman-friendly website

• How to market to women without alienating men

• What women want and need from a shopping experience

• How to re-write your marketing copy so that it's inviting to women
  

Click here for more class details about Marketing to Women.

What Students Say... The Marketing To Women class was very helpful in offering specific, valuable tips on what women really want and are looking for with information. I will be changing my website to reflect these ideas, and adding more coaching options to be more client-focused. The price for this class was easily justified! --Barbara Brady Intercultural & Transition Coach

Schedule

This three-week teleclass begins

May 15, 2008

• May 15

• May 22

• June 5

NOTE: There will no class the week of Memorial Day (May 29)

All teleclasses are

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM eastern

Classes will be recorded, so if you miss a session, you will be able to download the audio recording of the live class and listen to it at your leisure.

The instructor for this class is Alicia Smith. Alicia has been self employed since 1978 and has started 6 businesses and sold 4 of them. If you like to know not only why you should do things, but how, you will enjoy Alicia’s teaching style.

Registration

Registration Fee: $99

Instructor: Alicia Smith

Registration Information:

http://www.passionforbusinesslearning.com/mtw/